Let's Jump
by EpicLoVe111
Summary: This is a rewrite of the series finale. I wanted a happier ending so I decided to write one. This is what I think should have happened. I also included a few surprises. This is rated T but could be considered M in some chapters. I'll give notice of that
1. Graduation Party pt 1

**OK so I decided it was time to release my Rory/Logan fan fiction now. This story may be released slower than my Chuck and Blair Gossip Girl one. There are times I catch myself and it's almost as if Rory is starting to sound like Blair which of course they're pretty much opposites so that's why it may be slower. I'm going to put the 1st three chapters out though. This is told in present tense which is also hard for me because I normally write of course in past tense so if you catch me talking in past tense when it should be present, I'm sorry. Anyway, this story is going to be series finale rewritten. I should warn all of you. I saw the proposal however I never watched Rory tell Logan no. I refuse to watch it mainly because I know I would start bawling. I know it happens though and that's why I wrote the story. I felt there should be a happier ending to it. Anyway, I hope you like it. Also make sure you review!**

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My graduation party from Yale is abuzz with excitement. My grandparents are proving that once again they know how to throw a hell of a party. Everyone who received an invitation showed up. The ladies from the DAR, Logan, and my parents are all here plus 75 of my grandparents' closest friends. I look over at my mom and I notice how she's beaming with pride.

I haven't had the easiest road when it came to Yale. I had to take that semester off to figure out whether or not journalism was my passion. People, like my mom, were eager to make Logan a scapegoat for my quitting Yale. In reality I could tell that he was desolate over the situation. Especially when he found out what his father said to me in my performance review. It had taken a staggering toll on me. He felt guilty no matter how many times I told him not to. If I'd let Logan have his way then, I have no doubt that he would have clocked his father. Well, at least engaged in a verbal sparring match with him.

Logan and I have been through a lot together over the last 3 years. We've had our rough patches but what couple hasn't? He taught me how to be a risk taker and for that I am eternally grateful to him. I hadn't realized just how mundane my life was until the point when Logan came into the picture.

I look around the room at everyone mingling and I see my boyfriend who is chatting with a couple of older gentlemen. He glances over at me and grins. My heart still skips a beat every time he looks at me. After all this time I'm still more in love with him than ever. I smile back and turn my attention back to the DAR ladies who are telling me how much they miss me.

It was as if Logan automatically picked up a cue from the look I gave him to come over and rescue me.

"Excuse me ladies. I was wondering if I would be able to steal my girlfriend for a minute. Some urgent business." He tells them as he smiles sweetly at the DAR ladies.

Of course they agree that it's OK for me to leave. Logan grabs my hands and leads me away from them. "You really are my knight in shining armor." I inform him.

"I saw you dying." He reveals. "Well actually I do have an urgent matter."

"What's up?" I ask.

"You look beautiful." He tells me as he turns to face me.

I grin as he leans down and kisses me.

I can honestly say that I've never been in love like this before. I've only had 3 serious relationships in my 22 years but I can attest to this one being the most intense, most passionate one out of the bunch. It's also been the longest lasting.

"I love you." He whispers to me as my parents make their way to us.

"Love you too." I whisper back.

My dad comes over and eagerly greets me with a hug and shakes Logan's hand. I then hear my grandparents announce how they thank everyone for attending my party. I see them signal the piano player to start and I watch them belt out this tune. They're way off key but overall I have heard worse. They finish their number and I take it as my cue to join them up front. I let everyone know how I couldn't have even gone to Yale without their assistance. I toast to them along with everyone else. I start to move back down to where my parents and Logan are standing when I hear Logan ask my dad to wait from making a call to Gigi's babysitter.

"Actually would you mind waiting?" Logan asks my dad.

"Sure." My dad responds.

"Trust me you'll want to stick around for this." He assures him.

When I hear Logan tell my dad this, my ears perk up in interest. That and the fact that I see my parents whispering in hushed tones overwhelm my curiosity. Logan joins me in front of all of these people and clears his throat.

"If I could, I'd also like to say something to my girlfriend of the past 3 years."

I smile as I turn to face him. His expression is one of elation. I think that I've only seen him truly this happy a handful of times.

"You amaze me, Rory Gilmore, everyday. Everything that you do, everything that you are."

I just watch as he continues his speech.

"This past year I realized that I don't know a lot more than I thought I knew."

My eyebrows furrow in confusion as I try to decipher what the hell he just said.

"If that makes any sense," He laughs as he faces the crowd, "I'm sorry. I'm a little bit nervous. I didn't think that I would be." He confesses as he turns back to me. "What I'm trying to say is…that I don't know a lot. But I know that I love you."

I blush in embarrassment as I feel everyone's gaze on me.

"And that I want to be with you. Forever."

Oh my god! Did he just say forever? Like forever forever? I'm speechless. I'm stunned. Did he really mean forever? No, he couldn't have. Otherwise he would have bought…

Logan reaches into his pocket and presents me with a box. A little blue box. He flips the top open and there it is…a ring. A gorgeous diamond ring. My expression is uncertain as I stare at it. There really are no words.

"Rory Gilmore…will you marry me?"

Seriously right now there are no words.

"Umm…wow." I find myself saying, "Umm…wow…I…"

Logan's trying to look hopeful here. I know my stuttering is making him panic internally.

"Is there a yes in between those wows?"

I still find myself having a hard time putting more than 2 words together. "I'm just…I'm so surprised. Umm…umm…umm…will you come talk to me outside?" I ask under my breath in a hushed tone.

Logan looks at me perplexed but says sure.

As I leave I grab Logan's hand who is trailing behind me. When I pass my parents, I lock eyes with my mom who is looking at me with alarm etched on her face. I hear the whispers from the crowd but I ignore them.

As soon as we're in the courtyard, I look over my shoulder and tell him, "Sorry, I just didn't want to talk in front of everybody."

"No I completely understand." He assures me which in turn causes me to relax a little…until I stop dead in my tracks due to seeing the horse and carriage. "What? Is that…?"

"For us?" He finishes. "Yeah, I'm sorry. I know you said you were over big gestures but that's what wedding proposals are." He reasons. "And tonight with your parents here and your grandparents I just thought…"

"No it's not the size of the gesture, it's the gesture itself." I clarify to him.

"Rory, I got the job in Silicon Valley."

My whole face lights up in excitement. "What? You did? When?"

"Well they offered me the position about 45 minutes after the meeting but I just…I wanted to save the news until after I proposed."

This astounds me. "Wow! You've been thinking about this for awhile."

"Yeah." He agrees, "Back when everything was up in the air businesswise, I realized as long as I had you, I'd be OK."

I give him a sweet smile at the compliment. He's always been quite the gentleman.

"You would love Palo Alto, Rory. We could go hiking in the Dish on weekends, biking at the Bay Lands…"

"Wow. California me sounds really athletic." And so unlike me. I've never been into athletics.

"Or coffee drinking on University Avenue." Logan throws out.

"That's easier to imagine."

"I went exploring a little and there's this little house that we could rent. It has a backyard with an avocado tree."

"I do like guacamole." I interject.

"And it's only 35 miles south of San Francisco. Just a straight shot up the 101."

"Wow! You've done a lot of research." I can't believe just how much delving into the culture he did on this trip.

"Yeah, you could work at the Chronicle or the San Francisco Bay Guardian."

"Wow! Oh, it sounds amazing. Logan it sounds wonderful. I just…I don't know. I mean you've had time to think about this and research newspapers and it's so sweet and wonderful, I just…I'm hearing about it for the first time." I explain.

"So you're saying in the past 3 years you've never thought about marrying me?"

I'm quick to assuage his doubts, "No, of course I have."

"And?" His eyes look optimistic.

"And it's always been a really wonderful thought but it was always hypothetical and…"

He's quick to jump in, "I know for me too but then it hit me. Why wait? Remember when we were in the Life and Death Brigade and we stood on the top of that tower and we held hands and we jumped? Let's do that again, Rory. Let's jump."


	2. Graduation Party pt 2

**Here's Chapter 2 of the story. Sorry, I thought it would let me do the titles a little bit different and that way you could see whose POV it was going to be. The first chapter was in Rory's POV and this one is in Logan's POV. Chapter 3 will be back to Rory and Chapter 4 will be Logan. Anyway, I hope you like the story. I'd love to see reviews here. Please please let me know what you think of it. Also I know that Lorelai wasn't necessarily "forced" out of her life of privilege but when I started to write this, I hadn't necessarily watched every episode in all 7 seasons like I now have. Anyway, hope you like it!**

For the longest time I never thought that I would be in a relationship, let alone one for 3 years. I never thought I'd want to be in a relationship. Then Rory Gilmore stepped into my life and turned it upside down. In a good way, of course.

I honestly couldn't imagine my life without her. I think I fell in love with her the day she jumped with me at the Life and Death Brigade stunt. I always knew that she had an adventurous side that was just waiting to be released. It's also an ego booster that I was the one who helped her find it.

We've been through so much together over the last 3 years. We weathered the long distance from when I had to move to London. There have been numerous altercations between our two families. I've had issues with my parents my whole life. Especially with my father. I've given up hope trying to impress him.

My issues with Lorelai have proven to be trying at times. I have a lot of respect for the woman though. She was a single mom at 16 when her parents forced her out of her life of privilege. I know with all of my issues Lorelai has had every logical reason to assume I'm not the right guy for her daughter. I honestly believe that with my trip to Stars Hollow where we talked over pie and ice cream we were able to resolve our issues.

Rory and my parents have had a harder time at trying to form an alliance. My parents are at fault entirely. Rory's a trouper but I know it still tends to get her down. She's resilient though. That's one of the things I love most about her. She faces challenges head on. She knows how to go out and get exactly what she wants. I just wish my parents could see all the amazing things that Rory has brought into my life since she's been in it.

Now here I am, with an engagement ring in my pocket, ready to propose. I've known for at least 3 months that Rory was "the one" and that I wanted to make her my wife. I've also known for just as long that I would propose to her at her graduation party. I've come a long way since my partying playboy days. Back in those days, the whole sanctity of marriage or even dating exclusively just seemed like a myth to me. Then came the day when Rory was tired of the whole "friends with benefits", casual dating thing. You know, what I had become accustomed to. She was willing to walk away and just be friends. I, however, was not. I couldn't lose her. She had made such a radical impact on my life in the short time she had been in it at that point. She did a life-altering change for me with trying the casual life that I felt it was necessary to do one for her. Now it's time for us to do one together.

I'm mingling around at Rory's graduation party and I have a drink in one hand and my other hand is in my pants pocket guarding the ring box. I have to ensure that it's still there. It is, Thank God. I look over at my girlfriend and she looks like she's about ready to go out of her mind from the conversation with the DAR ladies. I take this as an indication that she needs to be rescued.

"Excuse me ladies. I was wondering if I would be able to steal my girlfriend." I explain and smile. "Some urgent business."

They excuse her and smile back. I grab her hand and swiftly lead her away from them.

"You really are my knight in shining armor." I hear her breath a collective sigh of relief.

"I saw you dying." I tell her. "Well, actually I do have an urgent matter."

"What's up?'

"You look beautiful." I lean down and kiss her. I pull back and see her grinning.

"I love you." I whisper to her.

"Love you too." She whispers back.

Rory's dad comes over to greet us with Lorelai trailing right behind him. I know it means a lot to Rory that her parents are still on good terms especially after everything they have been through in the last year. As soon as I get done shaking her dad's hand, I hear Richard complimenting Rory on her achievements and graduating from Yale. I'm grinning from ear to ear during his speech because I'm so proud of her too. I give her hand a quick squeeze.

As I watch Richard and Emily put their thoughts of Rory into melody, I can't help but compare their singing to Finn's singing with the zydeco band. It does give both of us a good laugh though. Rory goes up as soon as they finish singing their musical dedication to her. She thanks them profusely for all the help they have given her over the years. My hand instinctively goes into my pocket. Yep, it's still there.

I hear Rory's dad tell her mom that he has to make a call to his babysitter about Rory's little sister.

"Actually would you mind waiting?" I ask.

"Sure."

"Trust me; you'll want to stick around for this." I assure him as I take my place next to Rory in front of the huge group of people.

"If I could, I'd also like to say something to my girlfriend of the past 3 years." I pause as I turn to face Rory. "You amaze me, Rory Gilmore every day. Everything that you do, everything that you are." I can't help but beam at her. "This past year I realized that I don't know a lot more than I thought I knew."

Rory stares blankly at me. I can tell she's trying to figure out what I said as much as I'm trying to figure out what I just said. "If that makes sense." I start to chuckle. "I'm sorry. I'm a little bit nervous. I didn't think I would be." I take a deep breath and finish. "What I'm trying to say is…that I don't know a lot. But I know that I love you." I can see her flush. All these eyes seem to be piercing her. "And that I want to be with you. Forever."

As soon as I say the word forever I see her stop breathing for a moment. I reach inside my pants pocket and present her with a little blue ring box. I flip it open and show her the 4 ½ carat emerald cut platinum engagement ring I bought a few months ago before my entrepreneurship got shot to hell.

"Rory Gilmore…will you marry me?"

It's hard to describe the expression I see crossing her face. It's somewhere between flabbergast and awe.

"Umm…wow." She stutters. "Umm…wow…I…"

"Is there a yes in between those wows?" I prod.

"I'm just…I'm so surprised. Umm…umm…umm…will you come talk to me outside?"

"Sure." I answer in a bemuse tone. She grabs my hand and pulls me outside. OK so this is not the response I was hoping for. I was hoping for her to be screaming yes. I'd swing her around and kiss her about a thousand times before I'd stop to let her breathe. But I'm not going to let her initial reaction deter my desire for my original outcome. She didn't say yes but she hasn't said no either.

"I'm sorry." She tells me. "I just didn't want to talk in front of everybody."

I shake my head. "No I completely understand." Rory comes to an abrupt halt when she sees my other surprise.

"What? Is that…?"

"For us?" I finish. "Yeah, I'm sorry. I know you said you're over big gestures but that's what wedding proposals are." I rationalize. "And tonight with your parents here and your grandparents I just thought…"

"No, it's not the size of the gesture, it's the gesture itself."

"Rory, I got the job in Silicon Valley." I reveal.

Her whole entire face lights up. "What? You did? When?"

"Well, they offered me the position about 45 minutes after the meeting but I just…I wanted to save the news until after I proposed."

"Wow!" She exclaims. "You've been thinking about this for awhile."

"Yeah." Actually I had planned to propose to her at her party whether I had gotten the job or not. Of course she doesn't know that and she won't know that. I then admit to her what I've known for the last 3 months. "Back when everything was up in the air businesswise I realized that as long as I had you, I'd be OK."

I see her flash her signature beautiful smile at me so I take it as a sign to continue. "You would love Palo Alto, Rory. We could go hiking in the Dish on weekends, biking in the Bay Lands."

"Wow, California me sounds really athletic." I can tell she's having a hard time picturing this. Hell, I'm having a hard time picturing her doing any of that. I'm sure we could start slowly but for right now I throw out a believable option. "Or coffee drinking on University Avenue."

"That's easier to imagine." She replies. It's much easier for me to imagine too.

"I went exploring a little and there's this little house that we could rent. It has a backyard with an avocado tree."

"I do like guacamole." She cuts in.

"And it's only 35 miles south of San Francisco. Just a straight shot up the 101."

"Wow! You've done a lot of research."

"Yeah. You could work at the Chronicle or the San Francisco Bay Guardian."

"Wow! Oh, it sounds amazing. Logan it sounds wonderful. I just…I don't know. I mean you've had time to think about this and research newspapers and it's so sweet and wonderful. I just…I'm hearing about it for the first time."

The first time? Seriously? That can't be right. "So you're saying in the past 3 years you've never thought about marrying me?" I ask in baffling tone.

"No, of course I have." She responds quickly as if she could anticipate that I would be upset.

"And?" I urge.

"And it's always been a really wonderful thought but it was always hypothetical and…"

I don't let her finish her thought though. "I know. For me too. But then it hit me. Why wait? Remember when we were in the Life and Death Brigade and we stood on top of that tower and we held hands and we jumped? Let's do that again, Rory. Let's jump."

"Wow Logan…just wow!" She turns away from me. I know she's getting overwhelmed.

"You know Ace I'm hearing that word a lot." I spin her around to look her directly in the eye. "Tell me what is it going to take to turn the wows into yeses?"

I'm starting to lose my patience here and I know that Rory is picking up on it. She sighs as she sits down on a nearby bench.

"Time." She whispers.

"Time." I echo blankly.

"Yes, give me tonight." She pleads. "Just give me tonight and I promise that I'll give you my answer before graduation tomorrow."

I stare at her skeptically. Fear and panic are causing my blood to run cold through my veins. It's amazing that in all the years that I was in the Life and Death Brigade I was never afraid. But somehow with the fact that Rory is hesitating, I'm actually scared.

"I'm not saying no, Logan." She reminds me. It's as if she is psychic. Of course I'm sure I'm giving her clues by my expression. "It's just…it's a really big step and we'd be moving across the country. I wouldn't get to see my mom that often."

Yeah I figured that she would be bringing her mom up at some point during this conversation. I think it's great that they're so close but there are times that it can tend to work at a disadvantage too. There have been times when I have felt like my life has been under a microscope. I'm not feeling that way right now mainly because Lorelai and I have reached a common ground. What scares me though is the fact that she just might have enough power to sway Rory into saying no.

"What are you talking about? You could get on a plane and fly back as often as you would need to."

"You've got answers for everything don't you?" She muses.

"Yes, I do." I tell her. "We could always fly her out too."

I stare at her for several moments then realize that's still not enough to convince her.

"OK fine." I snap. "But I want an answer before graduation tomorrow."

"I promise. " She draws an x over her heart.

"I'm going to go stay with Colin and Finn tonight." I tell her as I turn and walk away.

For the first time in 3 years I'm so unsure how this will actually turn out and it scares me. It scares the hell out of me…


	3. ProCon List

**Here's Chapter three. I'll probably only release these three this week unless I get some reviews wanting me to continue sooner than that. I have like 9 chapters of this story already typed. Depending on the response I get, I may still release chapter 4 this week. This chapter will be in Rory's POV. Please please review!**

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After my conversation with Logan ended, I sat on the bench in the courtyard and watched him walk away. Now he was naturally upset. I don't blame him. He had done all this research and I know he was wanting a reaction that required no hesitation and was in the form of a "yes" answer. I wanted to say yes right away but the reality is this is a monumental step.

It was 10 minutes later that I call my mom who promptly runs out of my grandparents' house and meets me by the horse and carriage. We then have a nice lengthy conversation as we ride around the street. She isn't much help though. I try everything in my power to get her to tell me what to do and she refuses. I think it's because she doesn't want to be held responsible for any repercussions that result from my decision.

I'm now sitting in my apartment gazing around at just how barren it has become. Paris has 1, maybe 2 more loads before she is completely moved out. I stand up and head into my bedroom. The majority of my stuff has already been packed but I left out some of my necessities: my clothes for tomorrow, my black high heels, my perfume that Logan got me for my birthday, my deodorant and jewelry. There's also the 2 most important items that are out: my laptop and my picture collage of me and Logan together. We've taken thousands of pictures over the last 3 years. The collage holds 6 pictures…the 6 most important pictures out of all the pictures we've taken together. There's us at his graduation; his sister Honor took the picture as soon as we were able to sneak a few minutes away from Logan's parents. Then there's one at my 21st birthday party at my grandparents' house. It was a bittersweet memory mainly because I was barely talking to my mom at that time. Then there's the one that Finn took of us at Logan's farewell party before he had to leave for London. I was blonde for the party thanks to the help of a wig. That memory was bittersweet too. The morning he left, I cried for three hours. I never told him that though. I know that he was sad to go. He wanted me to talk him out of going and I probably should have. I couldn't compete with his dad, though. It's an uphill battle. The next one was one of us together along with Finn, Stephanie, and Colin taken at Rich Man's Shoe about 5 months ago. We've taken several pictures with them but I like the most recent one the best. Then there's the one where we went to Stars Hollow and I showed Logan around town. The picture was taken right before we left to go back to New Haven and it was of me, Logan and my mom. We all had genuinely happy expression on our faces, my mom included. I'll never forget that trip.

And of course the picture in the center of the collage and the most important of the 6…the one where we jumped off that tower at the Life and Death Brigade stunt. That was the day that Logan broke me out of my protective shell and showed me just how much of a risk taker I can be. I can't even imagine where I would be if I hadn't done that stunt.

I head back into the kitchen and grab myself a bottle of water and retreat back to my room to do something I'm known for doing in tough situations: making a pro/con list.

**WEDDING PROPOSAL PRO/CON LIST **I type into my laptop. I immediately add two to the con list:

**Away from my mom, dad, Gigi and my grandparents**

**Logan's family hates me**

Then I add two to the pro list:

**I love him**

**Well Honor likes me**

Another to the con list:

**We've had some pretty intense fights**

Another to the pro list:

**We have amazing makeup sex**

One more con:

**We're still so young**

Then I move to the pro list:

**Age is just a number**

**We've lived together for part of our relationship**

**I've already pictured myself being his wife**

**He loves me**

**He wants and lets me be a risk taker**

My mind flashes back to the day we're at the Life and Death Brigade stunt. I stood atop of that tower made out of scaffolding and peered down. A wave of nausea overcame me.

"_High…" I acknowledge as I try to regain my normal breathing. "We are very high."_

"_I've been higher." Logan remarks as he passes me to get harnessed to perform the jump._

"_I meant distance from the ground." I inform him as Seth reminds me how completely safe this jump will be._

"_That too."_

_I stare down at the people below who all seem to be wearing the same expression: apprehension. I'm afraid to question it but ask anyway._

"_Why do they look so worried?"_

"_We're low on champagne." Logan lies through his teeth as he opens one of the umbrellas. "You can back out, you know. No one's forcing you." He reminds me._

_I swipe the umbrella from his hand. I'm going to show them all, I vow silently. "I know." I reassure him._

_I hear the people below start to recite Latin. I make my way to the edge with Logan at my side._

"_Do you trust me?" He asks as he clutches the umbrella in his left hand as we stare at the people below. _

_Did I trust him at that point? We barely knew each other at the time. It was more like a blind leap of faith…literally. So I say about the only thing I could think of at that point. "You jump, I jump Jack."_

"_In Omnia Paratus!" The people yell. Logan mumbles something about how he should have made sure that the potatoes made it through the test OK, grabs my hand, and hold on firmly as we jump. We sail serenely down to the ground._

_We stare at each other in awe that we did it. Or should I say that I did it. Logan has always been fearless._

"_You did good, Ace!" He exclaims._

"_Once in a lifetime experience!" I tell him and then he's brutally honest with me:_

"_Only if you want it to be."_

At one o'clock in the morning it gets the better of me and I have to check in on him….but I don't call him.

"Hello?"

"Hey Finn, it's me."

"Rory love!" He says in his thick Australian accent, "How are you, my darling?"

"I'm doing OK. I'm just trying to finish packing and get my stuff ready for graduation tomorrow."

I grab the ring box off my nightstand and pull the ring out. I slip it onto my left ring finger. It fits perfectly. God, it's gorgeous.

"That's wonderful, my love."

"So how's our boy doing?" I ask quietly.

"Oh, he's miserable without you darling." Finn confesses to me.

"I'm sitting right here Finn!" I hear Logan bellow in the background. "And I am not!"

"Would you remind him that I love him?"

"She loves you!" Finn calls to him.

"I know she does but I'll believe it even more when I hear her say yes."

"Did you hear that?" Finn asks.

I sigh, "Yeah, I heard him."

"So how are you coming as far as accepting his proposal goes, darling?" Finn asks.

"I'm getting closer."

"Getting closer?" Finn repeats and I hear Logan stir in the background. I figured that would get his attention. He's heading straight for the phone I can tell. "Closer what way?"

"Finn!" I chide him.

"Come on Rory. I'd love to have something that I could hold over your golden boy's head."

"Give me the phone, Finn." Logan demands.

"It's my phone." Finn reminds him.

"Give me the phone, Finn!" Logan repeats.

"Maybe she doesn't want to talk to you. After all, she did call me."

"Finn?"

"Yes my love?" He drolls.

"Are you coming to my graduation?"

"Of course darling. I'll be there with bells on."

"Then you'll be there when I give my answer. I promised Logan I'd give him an answer tomorrow morning. He needs to be the first one to hear."

"Of course darling. I'll be over soon." Before I can question what he meant by that I hear him hand the phone to Logan and tell him that he's on his way over to my apartment to sleep with me in an effort to get me to agree to marry Logan.

I hear a thud in the background so I'm trying to guess what Logan hit him with. "Hey Ace."

"Hey. How are you?"

"You know how I am, Rory." He tells me quietly.

So much for small conversation. "Right."

"So what are you doing right now?"

"Just try to finish packing, looking at the pictures in my collage…"

"You mean our collage?" He corrects me.

I smile. "Yeah our collage. Reminiscing about the past…staring at the ring."

"Staring at the ring?" He repeats.

"Yeah. I can't take my eyes off of it." I admit to him then think to myself I shouldn't have told him that.

Surprisingly he veers to a different subject.

"So how's that pro/con list coming?" He throws out.

"And how do you know there's a pro/con list?"

"Rory you solve all of you life altering decisions by a pro/con list."

"And so far it's been very effective in solving all of my life altering decisions." I emphasize. "Quit acting like I've already told you no Huntzberger. I haven't said no." I snap at him.

"I want to see a copy of this list when you're done making it."

"Well of course you'll see it. How else do you think you're going to get your answer? It's going to be at the end of the list."

"Really?"

"Of course that doesn't mean you get to skip right to the end though." I advise.

"I know." He agrees even though we both know he's lying. He'll cheat and look.

"Listen I have to go. I'm going to finish the list then head to bed. I need my beauty sleep. It's going to be a long day tomorrow." I explain.

"OK goodnight."

"Goodnight. Logan?"

"Yeah Ace?"

"I love you."

"I know." He's smirking into the phone I can tell.

"Logan!"

"Oh, I'm sorry." He clears his throat. "I know. I love you too."

I smile as I click end.

I stare at the ring and I can tell it's subliminally saying, "Come on, you know you want to wear me every day." I take a huge gulp of my water and return to come up with some more for the con side. It's hard though. I consider writing the fact that he did cheat on me but honestly he didn't the whole time he was in London so I decide to leave that off. When I can't think of any others beyond that one for the cons, I move to the pro list.

**He believes in me**

**I believe in him**

**We've conquered problems most people never have to deal with**

**Sex in general with him whether it's the makeup version or not has always been hot. **

**I can't imagine my life without him**

**He's always encouraged me and has never doubted that I would be a journalist**

**I trust him**-that's the truth. After everything that's happened I trust him

I did think of one more con though

**There would be unrealistic expectations as far as being a Huntzberger goes**

I count to see how many of each I have and there's 15 pros and 5 cons. Wow! No contest really even though the 1st two cons equal out to about 5 pros each. Even with that figured in it's still less than 15. I got to thinking just that I should end the pro list the same way I started it:

**I love him**

I go ahead and save the list so I can print it tomorrow. I'm too tired to do it tonight. I snap the laptop shut then, crawl under my covers and turn off my light. I sleep with the ring on that night. My mind flashes back as I dream of the day of my grandparents' vow renewal, which was the night of our first kiss.

"_Look…are you sure you wanna do this?" Logan asks as I swallow a mouthful of champagne._

_I creep closer to him and gaze at him in the dimly lit dressing room. He actually looks like he thinks I'm going to back out. He should have known better especially since he was the one who got me to jump at the Life and Death Brigade stunt. _

"_I just wanna know what it would be like."_ I take a lesson from my parents on that line. It was what my mom said to my dad right before she kissed him for the first time. I did inherit a few things from my mom: her ambition, her bluntness, and her benevolence. Not only did I kiss Logan for the first time that night but I got him to throw away any misconceptions he had about me…especially that I was "too special" to date.

I wake up and stretch. It's already 10 o'clock and my parents will be picking me up for brunch in an hour and a half. The first thing I do is finish the list. I go ahead and take a picture of my hand and put the picture at the end of list. I then print it and on the very last page I write my answer to him. I climb out of bed then and make my way to the shower. I spend the next 20 minutes luxuriating in the hot water. As I finish drying my hair to curl it, my phone rings. It's Logan. He's getting pretty anxious it seems because as I look down I see I missed a couple calls from him while I was in the shower. The bad thing is I'm running behind.

"Hey."

"Hi Ace. Where were you?"

"In the shower. Sorry about that. I just saw you had tried calling a couple times. Did you sleep OK?"

Logan groans, "About as OK as anybody can sleep through Finn's snoring."

I just laugh as I balance the phone on my shoulder and try to curl my hair.

"So…" He says.

"So…" I repeat.

"Have an answer for me?"

"I told you I would." I remind him and then burn the back of my neck. "Ow!" I scream. "Goddamn it!"

"What the hell are you doing?" He demands.

"Curling my hair." I whimper then get back to the topic at hand, "I'll tell you my answer after the ceremony."

"After?" Logan exclaims. "Ace, we had a deal. You promised before the ceremony."

"Logan, my parents will be picking me up for brunch with my grandparents in less than an hour. I just don't think I'll have any time beforehand. By the time you get here we'd have no time to talk before I would have to leave." I explain. I hear a knock on the door then and panic. Oh my god my parents can't be here already.

"Hold on." I tell him as I rush to the door, unlock it, and swing it open to find him standing there.

He closes his phone and smirks at me. "Nice try but you're not getting away that easily."

I sigh as I move away from the door to let him in. "Logan, I was serious. I'm only half ready."

"I know. Go finish getting ready. Just let me read the list while you are."

I retreat to my room to get the list but I hide the last page which has the actual answer on it in my robe pocket. The engagement ring is in the bathroom on a shelf above the towel rack. I guide him back to my bedroom, hand him the two sheets that has the pro/con list on it and inform him I'm going to finish curling my hair.

"What unrealistic expectations?" He calls from my bedroom.

"You know which ones, Logan. Think back to the dinner at your parents' house. They want your wife to be a society wife and not have a job. You and I both know that's never going to happen with me."

I hid the ring in my robe pocket then unplug my curling iron and head into my bedroom. I glance at Logan and he's got a look that's a mix of amusement and confusion.

"What?" I ask innocently.

"You said you were putting the answer at the end of the list."

"Oh, right." I nod. "You mean this?" I produce the third sheet from my pocket.

"That's not playing fair, Ace." He pouts.

"I know how your mind works, Logan. You would have gone straight to the last page." I remind him. "I wanted you to see how I got there."

I give him the last page then wandered into my closet to pull dress out and I slip the ring on my left ring finger. I haven't heard him make a sound which scares me. I come back out with the dress covering my left hand.

"What are you doing? What are you waiting for?" I ask puzzled as to why he hasn't opened it yet.

"You. I was waiting for you."

"Well, no need to wait any longer. Just read what it says."

Logan sighs heavily and flips open the paper to read what I wrote:

_You Jump, I Jump Jack_

His eyes lit up in glee especially when he saw the picture of my left hand donning the ring.

"Are you serious?" He gasps.

I pull my left hand out from underneath my dress and flash it at him.

He starts laughing happily and pulls me on top of him and kisses me. "God I love you Rory Gilmore."

"I love you too, Logan Huntzberger. " He kisses me again several times and I can see where this will be going if I don't stop him. "Logan, we can't do this right now. My parents are going to be here really soon. I promise later on this afternoon or tonight, OK?"

He grins at me. "Of course. We're going to celebrate after graduation."

I smile back. "You better believe it…but here's the thing." I remove the ring from my finger. "We're going to do this the correct way."

"Meaning what?"

"Meaning when the ceremony is over, we're going to gather everyone together and this time when you propose you'll get down on one knee."

"As you wish, Ace." He grins and kisses me again.

I look over at my clock and realize it's now 11:15. Damn my parents will be here in 15 minutes!

"Oh my god! I have to finish getting dressed. My parents will be here soon. Now go! If you're still here when they get here, they're going to know that I said yes and I don't want them to know yet."

"OK, OK." Logan nods as I get off of him and he stands up and heads for the door. "I'll see you in a little while, OK?"

I nod.

We share a really passionate kiss and then he leaves. I lock the door then rush back into my room to finish getting ready. As I was putting on my lipstick there was another knock on the door. I look through the peephole and see my parents. As soon as I unlock it, open it and I give each of them a hug. I let them know I need just a minute to grab my purse, cap, and gown. I come back out with everything in tow.

"OK. Let's go." I nod to them and lock the door behind us.

"So…how are you doing kiddo?" My dad asks me as he opens the front passenger door for me and lets me in. My mom was nice enough to offer to ride in the back. "Are you excited to finally be a Yale graduate?"

"Yeah, I am." I admit. "I can't wait to begin the next chapter in my life." I can secretly see my parents sharing a look through the rearview mirror. I'm giving them enough rope to keep them interested but I don't let the cat out of the bag.

"So kid…how many trips up and down from that dilapidated apartment are we going to have to make in order to move you home?" My mom asks.

I shrug. "Eh…five, six maybe?"

"I can't believe you're graduating from college." My mom gushes. "Now you're really making me feel old."

I smile at her. I can't see why she's saying that considering the fact that she's not even 40 yet. She's still young.

"Any other job offers?" She looks at me, hopeful.

"No, not yet. I've applied to a several other places since the ProJo offer." Including the Chronicle and the Bay Guardian. "But I haven't heard anything back yet."

Ten minutes later, we pull into the Hartford Country Club where my grandparents have their membership. They're already sitting down at their usual table when we join them.

"Well, there you are." My grandma whines. "I was beginning to worry that you got lost."

"No worries, Emily." My dad assures her. "I remember how to get here."

"Hi grandma, hi grandpa." They each get up to hug me.

"Well, Rory don't you look beautiful." My grandpa compliments me.

"Thank you." I blush.

"How does it feel to be graduating?"

"Great." I admit but I don't get overly emotional. "I can't believe it's here already."

The table went quiet for a few minutes before my grandma being the inquisitive, nosy person she's known to be on occasion decides to break the ice.

"So Rory have you made any kind of a decision regarding Logan's proposal?"

"Mother!" My mom glares at her.

"Well if no one else will bring it up then I will." She snips. "Have you Rory?"

"Yes, I have." I smirk.

"Really?" My mom raises her eyebrows in surprise.

"You have?" That's my dad.

"So what have you decided?" My grandma asks.

"You'll find out after the ceremony." I tease. "And not a minute earlier. I'm telling you what I told Logan's friends. He's going to be the first to hear as it should be."

"That would be quite a family to marry into." My grandma is more determined than ever to get an actual response.

"Mom, seriously shut the hell up." My mom admonishes.

"Lorelai, do not speak to your mother that way." My grandpa jumps in.

"I'm sure it would be." I tell my grandma.

"And Logan's such a nice young man."

"That he is."

"He loves you, you know." I'd love to throw back, 'No? Really? He does?' "Do you love him, Rory?"

Oh my god! Seriously? "Yes, grandma. Of course I love Logan and yes I know how much he loves me. I've been in love with him for three years now."

"Rory…"

"Grandma, seriously you're not going to be told before Logan, OK? So please stop. Logan will be the first one to know."

"Mom, seriously drop it now." My mom snaps.

"Lorelai…"

"Dad…"

My dad and I share a look as the argument ensues. My phone then start to buzz and I flip it open and see a text message from Logan.

_Mrs. Rory Huntzberger_

I smile as I dial his number.

"Hello?" He sounds far away.

"Hey. I just wanted to tell you I love the way that sounds."

"I knew it!" Finn cackles. "You said yes, didn't you?"

"Finn, why do you have Logan's phone?" I frown which causes everyone to look over at me.

"Sorry, Ace. Finn shanghaied my phone and won't give it back until you tell him your answer."

"We had a deal Huntzberger. " I scowl. "And it doesn't help that I have 4 sets of eyes piercing me and 4 sets of ears dying for me to give you my answer."

"Just tell him please."

"Finn, do you remember the conversation we had at like 1 o'clock this morning?"

"Only vaguely darling." Finn confesses. "I was a little sloshed when we talked."

"You're always a little sloshed when we talk, Finn." I shake my head. "That's part of the fun of our conversations."

My grandparents don't really seem amused by this conversation and my parents aren't looking the most comfortable either.

"OK so let me refresh your memory. I asked if you were going to the graduation and you said you'd be there with bells on. Then I said you would find out later and that Logan needed to be the first one to hear." I signal to everyone I'll be less than 2 minutes.

"Now give the phone back to Logan please."

"You don't play fair love." He's pouting.

"Finn, you've known me for three years. I've never played fair." I take a sip of my orange juice. "Have I ever played fair, Logan?"

"Not for a long time, Ace."

"That's right. My family was just made aware of that though. OK look I'm getting evil glares here from my family. I'll see you both in a few hours. And Logan, since you didn't find a way to stop Finn from calling, you'll get your answer at the same time as everyone else…after the ceremony."

"Ace…"

"Nope, forget it Huntzberger. Now I really have to go. I'll see you in a little while, OK?"

"OK. I love you Ace." I can tell he's smiling.

"I love you too Logan." I smile.

"I love you Rory!" Finn drolls in the background.

"Yeah I love you too Finn." I say as I roll my eyes. "Logan cut him off would you? Bye." I close my phone and see a variety of expressions from my family. My mom looks amused, my dad looks like he wants to die laughing, my grandpa looks perplexed, and my grandma…well she just looks pissed off.

"OK so why don't we finish eating?" I tell them nonchalantly as I dive into my scrambled eggs. "We have a graduation to get to."

The rest of the brunch went quick as we stuck to non-Logan subjects. My grandparents left first as they had to stop by their house before heading to New Haven. My dad informs us he'll go bring the car around. I tell them I'm going to go check my makeup then I'll be right out. I make my way to the women's restroom. I pull out my lipstick from my clutch and dab it on my lips. My mom follows me in the bathroom and gives me a small smile.

"Ready to go kid?"

I nod.

Right before we exit the bathroom, my mom stops me. She's got a somber looks on her face.

"Ror?"

"Yeah?"

"You told him yes, didn't you?"

I stare at her for a moment and this has to be one of the hardest things I've told her.

"Yeah mom. I told him yes. He came over this morning before you and dad arrived and I told him yes. It wasn't easy decision, you know. You, dad, Gigi, grandma, and grandpa were the #1 reason on the con list. I love you guys so much but with college ending I figured it was time to try something completely different."

"Are you sure?"

I give her a quick nod. "I'm sure mom. I'm sure you're not happy about me marrying Logan given your past with him…"

"Rory, we've come a great distance since the beginning." She reminds me. "Sure I'm not happy with certain things that have happened but we've at least reached a common ground now. Logan and I covered a lot during our talk over pie and ice cream. As long as you're sure that Logan is going to make you happy…"

"He will…he is. "

"Then I'm happy for you."

I give her a huge hug then. "Thank you mom."

We leave the bathroom and head for the exit door.

"By the way, I should probably warn you…"

"What?"

"Finn and Colin will more than likely be sharing best man duty so consider yourself warned."

"You honestly think I'll need it?"

"After listening to my conversation with Finn, what do you think?"

* * *

**OK so when I did this list originally, I thought it was 16 pros before I added the last I love him and now I've recounted twice and it was 15. If by some odd reason I'm off in my numbers, sorry. Please please please review! All the reviews I get keep me to want to write more.**


	4. Oh my god she said yes

**OK so as promised here's Chapter 4. This is in Logan's POV picking up from when he left the party and went to Colin and Finn's. Now the ringer on Finn's phone is an old song but quite frankly I racked my brain trying to think of a better ringtone and I couldn't. If you have any other ideas let me know and I may update it but I just couldn't think of a better one at the time I wrote it. Also, I really appreciate all the reviews so thank you! It's nice to see there's still so many fans of Logan and Rory even now after the show's been off the air for 3 years. Hard to believe isn't it? I still watch reruns on ABC Family and SoapNet though. One of you also asked about what Emily's reaction is to the proposal and honestly...I didn't really put in a reaction for her other than she was happy. If you feel there should be one let me know and I can see by reworking it. Anyway, hope you like it and remember to review! **

She said yes. Oh my god she said yes. Well, actually she said 'You jump, I jump Jack' which basically equates out to yes. I honestly don't know how I got so lucky. I had a lot of doubts last night. I had this gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach that she would be saying no. I'm so happy I was wrong though.

When I left Emily and Richard's party, I was crestfallen. I didn't want to admit just how bad I felt that I didn't get an answer from her. Finn and Colin were generous enough to put me up for the night. I arrived over at their apartment shortly after 11 looking completely disheveled. My tie is off, along with my suit jacket. The top 2 buttons of my shirt are undone and my hair is in utter disarray. Colin and Finn share a look as I walk through the door. I hadn't told them that I was going to propose. It was hard to keep that secret. We normally tell each other everything.

"Geez Logan." Colin remarks as he does a shot. "You look like you got ran over by a truck."

"Thanks Colin. Tell me how you really feel." I bark.

"Calm down, mate, calm down." Finn replies as he puts his hand on my shoulder, "Loge, sit down and tell us what's going on."

I grab one of the shot glasses that are residing in front of Colin and down it as I collapse on the couch. I slam the glass down on the coffee table. "I proposed to Rory and she told me that she needed time to think about it." I slur.

"So?" Colin frowns. "She didn't turn you down."

"But she didn't say yes, either. I mean what is there to contemplate? She knows how much I love her."

Colin and Finn share a look like I must be the most naïve person on the planet.

"Is he serious?" Colin mumbles to Finn.

"He looks it." Finn answers.

"What?" I demand as I refill my shot glass with some more scotch.

"Umm…your family for one thing, mate." Finn reminds me.

"Yeah, Rory and your mother aren't exactly bosom buddies, you know?" Colin adds.

"Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if that was her #1 reason why she would say no." Finn says.

Colin shakes his head. "Nah, I don't think it's #1 but it is high on the list."

"I bet it is."

"I bet it isn't."

I start to groan. "Would you two shut the hell up? You're not helping!" I sneer as I down the shot I had just poured.

They ignore me however. I'm glad to see this is the meaning of true friendship.

"$100 says that's her top reason." Finn declares.

"You're on." They shake hands as I roll my eyes. A second later, Finn's phone starts to play I'll Make Love to You by Boyz II Men and I cast a bizarre glance to him then to Colin.

Finn flips his phone open. "Hello?"

"Hey Finn. It's me."

"Rory love!" Finn's eyes light up. "How are you my darling?"

I honestly don't think I want to know why he has that song attached to my girlfriend's number.

"I'm doing OK. I'm just trying to finish packing and get my stuff ready for graduation." I hear her say.

"That's wonderful, love."

I watch him cautiously to see if I can tell what they're saying.

"So how's our boy doing?" I hear her hesitate before asking.

"Oh, he's miserable without you darling." He confesses to her. Truthfully, he's right but he didn't need to tell her that.

"I'm sitting right here Finn!" I exclaim. "And I am not!"

"Would you remind him that I love him?"

"She loves you!" Finn tells me emphatically.

"I know she does but I'll believe it even more when I hear her say yes." I fire back.

"Did you hear that?" He asks her.

"Yeah, I heard him."

"How are you coming as far as accepting his proposal darling?"

"I'm getting closer."

"Getting closer?" Finn echoes. The second he says that, I fly out of my seat. "Closer what way?"

"Finn!" I hear Rory groan.

"Come on Rory. I'd love to have something I could hold over your golden boy's head." He taunts.

"Give me the phone Finn." I tell him.

"It's my phone."

"Give me the phone Finn!" I state again.

"Maybe she doesn't want to talk to you. After all, she did call me."

"Finn?"

"Yes my love?"

"Are you coming to my graduation?"

"Of course darling. I'll be there will bells on."

"Then you'll be there when I give my answer. I promised Logan that I'd give him an answer tomorrow morning. He needs to be the first one to hear." I have to give my girl credit. She didn't succumb to Finn's antics.

"Of course darling. I'll be over soon." Finn looks over and hands me his phone. "Desperate times call for desperate measures, mate. I'll just head over there and bang her until she agrees to marry you."

Even though I know he's joking, I still pummel him with one of the pillows that's on the couch.

"Hey Ace. " I greet her quietly.

"Hey. How are you?" She's grasping for ideas I can tell.

"You know how I am Rory." I state simply.

"Right." She resigns.

"So what are you doing right now?"

"Just trying to finish packing, looking at the pictures in my collage…"

I know exactly what pictures she's referring to so I correct her. "You mean our collage." She has 6 pictures that held personal milestones of us and of course 5 of them border the most important one in the middle: the jump at the Life and Death Brigade gathering. It's the story of us.

"Yeah our collage. Reminiscing about the past…staring at the ring." She confesses.

"Staring at the ring?" I repeat in disbelief.

"Yeah, I can't take my eyes off of it." She admits.

I would love nothing more than to delve further into this but I have a feeling that I'll just end up getting upset so I decide to change subjects.

"So how's that pro/con list coming?"

"And how do you know there's a pro/con list?"

"Rory you solve all of your life altering decision by a pro/con list." I remind her.

"And so far it's been very effective in solving all of my life altering decisions." She huffs. "Quit acting like I've already told you no, Huntzberger. I haven't said no."

"I want to see a copy of this list when you're done making it." I demand.

"Well, of course you will. How else do you think you're going to get your answer? It's going to be at the end of the list."

"Really?" I ask.

"Of course that doesn't mean that you get to skip right to the end though."

"I know." We both know I'm lying though.

"Listen, I have to go. I'm going to finish the list then head to bed. I need my beauty sleep. It's going to be a long day tomorrow." She informs me.

"OK. Goodnight."

"Goodnight. Logan?"

"Yeah, Ace?"

"I love you."

"I know." I smirk.

"Logan!"

"Oh, I'm sorry." I clear my throat then correct myself. "I know. I love you too."

And now 12 hours and another drunken conversation from Finn to Rory later, I arrive at Yale to see my fiancée graduate. My fiancée. God I love saying that. After I got done talking to Rory this morning, I went back to Colin and Finn's and Finn and I proceeded to have a talk of the numerous reasons he will be removing that ringtone from Rory's number. Of course his excuse was that he has it assigned to every girl in his phone book which is believable.

I scan the audience and I see her parents and grandparents finding their seats. I take my seat in the next section surrounded by Stephanie, Colin, and Finn. Rory has always gotten along great with my friends. She's always fit in well with them and they love her. Rory has always had that "social butterfly" persona about her. She can easily adapt to any situation around her.

When her name was announced, not only did she have her parent and grandparents stand up and applaud her, but she also had another cheering section with us. Lorelai and I lock eyes for a minutes and smile at each other. Her smile though seems to be a little sad which leads me to conclude that Rory told her she said yes. We each have a different set of plans we want Rory to follow but our objectives have always been the same: make her happy.

An hour and a half later, after the ceremony concludes, I briefly spring away from my friends to join Rory and her family. They're currently taking pictures by one of the old oak trees on campus.

"How about I take some pictures of all of you together?" I offer.

Emily hands me her camera. "Why thank you Logan. That's awfully nice of you."

"Not a problem. Anyone else have a camera that wants pictures? Christopher? Lorelai? Ace?"

Lorelai reaches in her purse and produces her camera. "Thanks Logan."

"Ace? Camera?"

"Thanks sweetie but I'll just get copies from mom."

I take several pictures on each camera and return them to their respected owners. We disperse then Emily says, "Wait!"

Lorelai sighs. "What now mom?"

"We need a picture of Rory and Logan together."

I signal for Finn, Colin, Steph, Paris, and Doyle to come over and join us.

"Don't worry Emily. " I assure her, "We'll do that in just a second."

As everyone starts to gather around, I look over at Rory and see her smiling.

"OK," I announce, "We're going to try this again. This time for a more intimate crowd: a crowd that knows us on a more personal level rather than just social. I'm going to do a shorter version of the speech that I gave last night. Rory…" I stare at her as I hold onto her hands. "I love you. I love you so much that I honestly can't remember a day when I didn't love you. I always knew that we would end up together forever. That's how sure I was. I love everything about you, Rory Gilmore. Your smile, your personality. You challenge me in so many ways that you make me want to be a better person."

Rory starts to giggle. "This is the shorter version?"

"Humor me, Ace." I tell her as I reach into my pocket, pull out the ring box, flip it open, and kneel down. "Rory…will you marry me?"

"Yes, Logan I will." She squeals.

I slip the ring on her left ring finger, stand up, and swing her around as she laughs. We hear applause as I kiss her several times.

"OK kids we get the picture." Lorelai groans but she's smiling.

"OK so that was how last night was supposed to go." I declare to all of them.

"Oh come on mate." Finn says. "This way was better. None of us were there last night. Besides, "He finds the pro/con list sticking out of my suit pocket, "We have a bet to settle and I know this is the list that Rory made to decide whether or not she was going to marry you." He tells. He swipes it before I get a chance to get it back.

Finn clears this throat.** The wedding proposal pro/con list**. He reads.

**Pro: I love him**

A nice collective ahh…follows

**Con: Away from my mom, dad, Gigi, and grandparents**

"Yes! I win!" Colin screams. "OK, Finn. Give me my $100."

"Bloody hell." Finn mumbles as he digs in his pocket and fishes out the $100 bill.

"What was that?" Rory asks me.

"They had a bet to see if my family would be the main reason you would say no."

"Nah, that's number two." She informs everyone else.

"So who wants to hear the rest of the list?" The majority of people cheer.

"Number two on the pro list: **well, Honor likes me**."

"Honor loves you." I correct her as I wrap my arms around her waist. "Granted it's not the way that I love you but she does."

Finn whistles then. "I really like your answer for #3 on your pro list, reporter girl."

It's been a long time since I had seen Rory's head whip around that fast. "Finn, you are not allowed to read #3 or #12 for that matter in the presence of my grandparents. And if you do, I'll guarantee you I'll make sure you don't get lucky with any redheads tonight." Another collective sound comes from our friends but this time it's an oooo.

"Oh come on Ace. It's not as if they don't know we…" I get cut off though.

"Four words Logan. My 21st birthday party." She huffs quietly. "Does that ring any bells now?"

Hell yeah it does. I had to live down evil glares from her grandparents for weeks after that. I think that they assumed I was trying to corrupt their granddaughter. I clear my throat, "Umm…yeah Finn you can finish reading the list later. Rory has valid reasons, OK? We'll share them with you later."

"Absolutely mate." Was Finn's response.

"OK so Emily," I glance over at Rory's grandmother, "Why don't you take that picture of me and Rory together now?"

"Yes, now would be the perfect time for a picture." She concurs.

I pull Rory close and wrap my arms around her waist and her hands lay on top of mine in order to display that huge diamond ring I got her. We both grin hugely for her mom's and grandma's cameras.

An hour later, we leave the campus and head over to Rory's apartment to move her out. I tell her mom that I can help Rory load and move her stuff out and that we'll just meet up back in Stars Hollow. Paris already moved the rest of her stuff out before we had arrived. We agreed we'd move her things back to her mom's house for right now. When I had gotten my answer this morning, before the ceremony, I made reservations at the Plaza Hotel for 3 days then from there we're going to spend the following 4 in California. I also have Colin, Finn and Steph going on this road trip with us. We're set to leave in a couple hours and they're going to be meeting us in Stars Hollow. It was Rory's idea. Besides the fact that I can't wait to see what the town's reaction is to Finn.

"One last load to go. " I tell Rory as I head down the stairs as she's going up. I finish my taking my load to her Toyota Prius Then take her box that she carries out so she can take her keys to the apartment office.

"Ready to go?" I ask as I close her trunk.

She nods.

I lean down and kiss her.

We climb into her Prius with her driving.

"You've been pretty quiet considering." I muse as she turns onto the freeway to go to Stars Hollow.

"I'm just letting it all soak in." She confesses as she steals a glance at me. "I think I shocked the hell out of my mom by saying yes."

"Why? Because she didn't want you to marry me?" I frown. I thought we were past this.

"No, not that. It's just that I'm moving across the country from her. We haven't been separated by more than 50 miles at any given point except for my trip to DC for school and the summer I spent with grandma in Europe." She explains and I nod. I know her mother is her best friend. Other than them I have never met anybody that has that close of a relationship with their parents.

"I meant what I said, Ace. You can fly back as often as you would need to. I don't want anything to hamper your relationship with your mom."

"I know."

Twenty minutes later, Rory pull into her mom's driveway.

"What time is everyone meeting us?" She asks.

I glance down at my watch. "In half an hour."

"Then the real fun can begin." She grins.

"You have no idea." I tell her right before I kiss her.

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**OK so that's Chapter 4. The next chapter is Rory's POV and has Finn, Colin, and Stephanie coming to Stars Hollow and a stop at Luke's Diner. It will be Rory's POV for about the next 2 or 3 Chapters. Please please review!**


	5. Dinner at Luke's

**OK so here's the next chapter. It's from Rory's POV and most of it takes place in Luke's Diner. The last scene with Lane at Rory's table is seeming really out of character and I may still consider rewriting it. Just go with it for right now. If I can find a different way to rework it, I will. Please review...I need to know that people are still reading the story. **

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OK so it took 20 minutes for me and Logan to finish unloading all of my boxes in my old room. We collapse on the couch from exhaustion. It honestly didn't look like that much stuff.

"So where are we going?" I mumble, my eyes are closed.

"It's a surprise." Logan answers.

"Do they know?" I ask, referring to our travel companions Steph, Finn, and Colin.

"Yep, they know." Even though my eyes are closed, I can tell he's smirking.

"I hate you." I pout.

"Love you too, Ace." He tells me right before he kisses me. It starts to get a little more intense then my mother makes her presence known.

"Excuse me kids…I know you're betrothed and all but I don't want any grandkids conceived on my couch, OK?" She sits down in the arm chair to the right of the couch.

We quickly pull apart. "Sorry mom." I can feel my face start to flush.

"OK so we didn't get much time to talk about moving after graduation. Logan, when does your new job start?"

"Two weeks." He answers as he looks over at me.

"Really?" I respond quickly. "Wow!"

"That's me though." He cuts in. "If you need more time you can always come out a few days later."

"We'll see. I'm sure that's probably enough time. When do I get to see this house?"

"Soon." He answers vaguely.

I groan. "Seriously, I hate you."

He grins. "Like I said before I love you too, Ace."

There's a knock on the door just now so I get up slowly to go answer it. There stood Stephanie, Finn, and Colin.

"Hi guys. Come on in." I opened the door wider to allow them in. "Did you find the place OK?"

"Just fine, love." Finn smiles at me.

"Ready to go?"

"What, no tour of your house, Gilmore?" Colin asks in mock hurt.

I frown. "Seriously? You want to see it? There's really not too much to the house."

"Of course, Rory." Stephanie smiles.

OK so honestly I'm feeling a little insecure right now. These three grew up in mansions, had servants, and have multimillion dollar trust funds. Now Logan, he was different. Granted he grew up in a mansion, had servants, and a multimillion dollar trust fund too but he knew what to expect walking into my house. These three don't.

I give them the more abbreviated tour. I tried to ignore the top floor because everything that is up there is my mom's but Finn's being a little pest and adamant about seeing the whole house. After the tour, I head into my bedroom and grab my suitcase and carryon. I take a second and sit down on my old twin bed and glance around. I can't believe just how radically my life has changed over the years. Back then I never would have imagined getting engaged at 22 to an heir to a newspaper dynasty and moving across the country to be with him. It's going to happen though…and I can't wait.

"Ace, come on!" Logan calls to me from the living room. "Time's a wasting!"

"I'm coming!" I call back as I stroll with my carryon on my shoulder and pulling my suitcase behind me.

Logan reaches out and grabs my luggage and informs me that he's taking them to the SUV so that way I can have a minute alone with my mom.

Once he closes the door I turn to her and smile. "Well, I guess it's time to get going."

"OK, have fun kid." She hugs me.

"I will."

"Listen your grandma gave me an envelope to give to you." Mom explains. "I put it in your purse."

"What is it?"

"She refused to tell me but if I have to venture a guess it would be the trust fund paperwork."

"Trust fund?" I repeat. "They have a trust fund for me?"

She nods. "There are two, actually. Gran had one done for you, too."

"Do you know how much are in them?"

"I haven't a clue on that though. You'll have to let me know how much they gave you."

"Will do."

This scares me now. I'm trying to figure out why they don't want mom to know how much they're giving me. I don't know if they realize that the dangerous game they more than likely just put into motion now.

I hear Logan honk. "OK I better get going." I give her another hug. "I love you."

"I love you too kid."

I climb into the front passenger seat as Logan is the one who's driving. He glances over at me as I buckle my seatbelt.

"You OK?"

I nod. "Yeah, of course I'm fine."

"Do you want to stop by Luke's and eat before we go?"

"Really?"

"Sure, why not?"

"OK. Great."

A few minutes later, Logan pulls in front of Luke's Diner. We all hop out of the SUV. I peer inside the front window and see Lane waitressing. I rush in with them trailing behind me.

"Lane!" I squeal as she looks up from the table she just finished serving.

"Oh my god! Rory!" We embrace in a huge hug. "What are you doing in town?"

"I just finished moving my stuff back from Yale. We're going on a road trip which Logan," I glare the evil eye at him, "refuses to tell me where we're going."

"Hi Logan." She shakes his hand.

"How are you doing, Lane?"

Lane sighs. "I'm exhausted." She admits.

"So what are you doing back here waiting tables?" I ask. "I thought Zack was."

"I decided that I had enough time off. I've been back for a few days." She then sees my left hand. "Whoa! Hello! When did you get that?"

"Technically last night." I tell her.

"Oh my god! You're engaged!" She yells loud enough for the whole diner to hear. Everyone turns around and applauds as Lane and I do the "Yes, I'm engaged" dance. Logan casts me a bizarre look like I must be out of my mind.

"Shut up! We did this last year when she got engaged. The only difference was we were on the sidewalk out front."

"I'm a bridesmaid, right? Please tell me I'm a bridesmaid." She begs.

"Of course you're not a bridesmaid silly. You're the matron of honor."

"Really?" Her eyes light up.

"Absolutely. With my mom as maid of honor it's only fitting that you're the matron of honor. Besides, I just made Logan's job easier and now he doesn't have to choose between the guys as to whom his best man is. They both can be."

Logan glances at the guys and they laugh. "Well thanks Ace. That's awfully nice of you." He gives me a quick kiss.

"Congratulations Logan." She gives him a hug.

"Thank you Lane." He smiles at her then throws me a look saying to introduce everybody.

"Oh right. Sorry. So Lane this is Stephanie, Colin, and Finn. They're friends from Yale. They graduated with Logan last year. Guys my best friend Lane who I've known…" I look at her pensively, "18 years? Is that right?"

She nods. "Yeah pretty damn close."

They exchange hellos but Finn goes above and beyond and kisses her hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Lane." He said in his thick Australian accent.

"Oooo…he's Australian." Lane swoons and Logan and his friends stifle their laughter, "He is Australian, right?" She whispers to me.

"Yes, he's Australian and Lane, you're married with twins under 6 months old."

She groans, "Believe me, I remember."

"Lane! Order up!" Luke calls from the kitchen.

Lane sighs. "Duty calls. Sit wherever you want, you guys."

"Hey listen when you get a break come sit with us. I have some more news I have to give you."

"Hey!" Her face lights up. "Do you want the band to play?"

I stare at her curiously. "Lane you would be in a fancy dress. You'd really want to play?"

I know by now that Logan, Steph, Colin, and Finn have to be enthralled with this conversation.

"You have a short term memory Rory because if you remember right I played in my wedding dress last year."

I smile at the memory. "That's right. You did. OK well let me talk it over with Logan, OK?"

She nods then head into the kitchen.

I sigh as I plop down into my chair.

"Quite a friend you got there Gilmore." Colin muses.

"She's the most loyal friend I have. We've been best friends since kindergarten. Lane has always been a free spirit and somewhat of a wild child. Her mother has always been very strict and opposed to the rock and roll lifestyle. That may have been what drew Lane to it. She's has been the biggest fan of rock and roll for as long as I can remember. The changes started to happen when I was a freshman at Yale. She confronted her mom and told her that she was dropping out of college to work on her band. Her mom then kicked her out of her house."

"Wow!" Steph comments.

"So yeah she moved in with two of her band mates, one of them is now her husband. They had twins just a few months ago."

"Rory." Luke comes out and greets me.

"Hi Luke." I smile as I get up to hug him.

"So I hear congratulations are in order." He says as his gaze drifts between me and Logan.

"You heard Lane scream, huh?" I grin.

"I did but I had actually heard it from Lorelai as soon as she pulled in from New Haven."

"Yeah I figured you would have been her first stop."

"Congratulations." He shakes Logan's hand. "Congratulations Logan. You're marrying a great girl."

Logan grins. "Thanks Luke. I happen to think so too."

"Steph, Finn, Colin, this is Luke. He's the owner here and also my mom's boyfriend. Luke, Steph, Colin, and Finn. They're friends from Yale."

They all exchange greetings.

"Did you all get a chance to peruse the menu?" Luke asks.

"Not really." I admit. "You know what I want but they haven't had a chance to look."

"OK. I'll give you a few minutes." He takes off back to the kitchen.

Just when I think I'll get 5 seconds to breathe, Taylor comes up to our table.

"Rory…"

"Yes Taylor?" I sigh.

"I need to talk to you about the reenactment." Everyone else's eyes seem to glaze over at the word reenactment.

"What about the reenactment Taylor?"

"I need to discuss the date with you."

"You're going to have to wait at least 3 days." I inform him.

"A week." Logan whispers to me.

"What do you mean a week?" My mouth drops open. "I thought it was 3 days Logan. I only packed for 3 days."

"So you and Steph will go shopping." He brushes off my panic. "Quit worrying."

"And who are you?"

"Taylor, that's Logan Huntzberger, my boyfriend or now I should say my fiancé. He was just here for the Spring Fling when we had it. You met him then."

"Huntzberger? Is he?"

"Why yes Taylor he's one of those Huntzbergers. His father owns just about every newspaper you can imagine." I snip. "You will survive a whole week. Arrange the date with my mom."

"Taylor, leave her the hell alone!" Luke growls as he comes back to take our order. "She's being nice enough to do the damn reenactment at all so count yourself lucky."

Taylor turns and leaves in a huff.

"OK so have you had enough time to look over the menu and decide what you want to eat?"

I stick with my usual hamburger, fries and a coke. Logan and the guys get cheeseburgers with everything, fries and Cokes. Stephanie has the same as me except she gets a Diet Coke.

Fifteen minutes later, our food comes and we all dive right in.

"So what's the general consensus?" I ask in between bites.

"Great."

"Excellent."

"Delicious."

"Very good Ace."

"Luke, great job as always." I call back to the kitchen.

"Thank you, Rory. You want a piece of pie?" He asks as he comes out to collect our plates.

"Want to split a piece of pie with me?" I ask Logan as I drain the rest of my Coke. "I'm not going to finish a whole piece by myself."

"Sure. You guys want pie?"

"What kind do you have?" Stephanie asks.

"There's peach, strawberry, and apple." Luke responds.

"Strawberry." I say.

"Peach." Colin says.

"Apple." Finn and Stephanie answer in unison.

"Hey Luke can Lane go on a break? I need to finish telling her my news."

"Sure." Luke tells Lane to take a 10 minute break. He brings out the apple pies and Lane brings the strawberry and the peach. She takes a seat to the right of me. She sits down and gives me a curious look because she sees me giving her a melancholy look.

"So what's going on?" Lane asks as she dives into the strawberry pie piece she brought for herself.

"Well, there something I need to tell you, sweetie. Logan got a job in California so in a couple weeks we'll be moving."

"You're moving?" Her voice raises a notch.

"Yeah." I nod.

"To California?"

"Yeah." I take a bite of my piece of pie.

"Who's moving to California?" Kirk joins the group.

"Rory is." Lane sulks.

"Rory, you're moving to California?"

"Yes, Kirk I'm moving to California."

"Why?"

"Because Logan got a job there."

"Who's Logan?" And he actually looks serious when he says this.

I groan. "The blonde hair guy sitting next to me that I'm sharing my pie with." Logan gives him a quick wave. "You met him when I brought him back for the Spring Fling."

"Oh, OK. So who are the rest of the people?"

"I'd introduce you Kirk but you won't remember their names. Trust me though they won't forget you."

The three secretly snicker.

"Well, that's good. So when are you going to do the reenactment?"

I silently start to count to 10. "When I get back from my trip." I grit out.

"When will that be?"

"Go away Kirk!" I bark which makes him sprint off. I run my fingers through my hair in frustration.

"You OK, Ace?" Logan wraps his arm around my shoulders and pulls me close to him.

"Yeah, fine." I sigh. "Lane, is Taylor putting something in the water that is making everyone lose their short term memory?"

"I wouldn't doubt it." Lane confesses. "It would be nice if it would affect long term memory instead though."

I scowl. "What are you talking about?"

"Do you remember what tomorrow is?"

"Of course I do, sweetie. It's your anniversary. I was maid of honor."

"Yeah, well at least you remembered."

"Lane, give Zack some credit. He hasn't forgotten I'm sure. I bet he has something romantic planned for you."

"You mean like how it was with my honeymoon? That stupid honeymoon at Pedro's Paradise and the beach…"

"Whoa, Lane! Stop right there." I know where she's going with this and the last thing I want is her bringing this up in front of them. It's for her protection, not theirs. "Honey, I know you want to talk about this but trust me, you don't want to talk about this here especially in front of these three." I point to the guys.

They all start protesting and I finish my thought. "Trust me, the guys won't have any sensitivity when it comes to that subject. "

"Ace…"

"OK, I take that back. I'm sure Logan would but the other two, I don't think they would."

"And what the hell makes you think that, Gilmore?" Colin demands as he finishes his pie.

"I've known you both for three years, Colin." I smirk. "Trust me; I know more than I would ever care to."

"What the hell have you been telling her, Logan?" Colin asks.

"Listen, when I get to wherever our destination is," I glare again at Logan, "I'll call you and we'll talk about this, OK?"

"OK. Sounds good."

"Hey, do you have a new CD at all?"

"I have one we made a few months before the twins were born. Did you get a copy of that one?"

"Yeah I do but do you have an extra copy? I'm going to need some good music for this road trip."

"Yeah, sure." She tells me as she finishes her pie. "Be right back."

I turn back to them and Colin still looks upset. "Honestly Colin. Logan hasn't told me anything, OK? Quite frankly, it's not about you guys and your reactions. Lane really shouldn't be bringing up the intimate details of her love life in this diner. It's really not smart." I whisper to him. "I just more or less said it to have her stop."

His face seems to clear then. "OK but I think you could have come up with a different way to do that."

I nod. "Yeah I probably could have. That was me thinking on my feet. Quite frankly I was surprised she was just going to spill her issues in front of all of you."

"Maybe she was looking for opinions." Stephanie offers.

"Yeah, she probably was but it wasn't smart to do it in this place." I look around and I notice everybody's attention focused on our table…mainly because of my guests. "Even though everyone has short term memories, they do have big ears in this town."

We all get up to leave and I see Babette come up to me along with Miss Patty.

"Hi doll." Babette greets me.

"Hi Babette, Miss Patty."

"How are you Rory?" Miss Patty asks.

"I'm good." I beam. "Logan do you remember Babette? She's my mom's neighbor and Miss Patty has the dance studio."

"Yeah, sure. The dance of the daffodils." Logan grins at them.

Miss Patty laughs. "That's right. It's nice to see you Logan."

"You too."

"So congrats doll." Babette grins. "Let me see the ring." I hold out my left hand for her to see. "That's gorgeous. Congratulations you two."

"Thank you." We answer in unison. They leave and Taylor comes back in from his Ice Cream Shoppe.

"Good news Rory. I talked to your mom and she said we could do the reenactment the night you get back."

I am beyond irate now. I pull Logan over to the side. "Take them and go to the SUV. None of you need to witness this." I give him a quick kiss and wait for them to leave the diner. My eyes turn cold as I glare at Taylor.

"No Taylor we will not be doing the reenactment the night I get back. First of all I don't know what time that will be and two I will be too tired." I glance around and I have everyone looking at me and I have Logan and the others watching me from the outside.

"OK everyone listen up because I'm only going to say this once. I will do the reenactment this one last time, OK? And of course the main reason is because you're blackballing my mother." I state furiously. "I'm sure you're all thinking that it was some Yale conspiracy as to why none of you were invited to attend the actual ceremony and you know what? I'm sorry but they give you 4 tickets and they went to my family."

Lane comes back and is carrying her CD. She hands it to me and is concealing a smirk.

"Now in case you didn't catch Lane screaming it earlier, yes, I'm engaged." I flash my ring around the diner. "Most of you met him when I brought him back to Stars Hollow awhile ago. His name is Logan Huntzberger and as I just told Taylor, yes, he's one of the Huntzbergers that has the newspaper dynasty. Now I'm not sure yet where we are going to have the wedding. Logan has a big family and I have a big extended family that my grandma is going to find necessary to invite. If we have it in town, great you're all invited. I promise. But if we don't there will not be a reenactment and you will not ostracize my mother because of it." I throw down 2 20's on the counter to pay for the meal and I storm out.

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**OK so I end the chapter on an unhappy note here. Like I said before, I may rewrite the scene with Lane at Rory's table. Also I know that Rory eats nothing healthy but I got thinking, that's just regular fruit and not necessarily pie so that's why I had her eat strawberry pie. OK so next chapter is still in Rory's POV. The road trip starts, Finn reads Rory's pro/con list which prompts Rory to initiate a game of 20 questions after they all had the image that she was perfect. I have Thursday off now too so I may get that chapter out still this week. Please review! **


	6. 20 questions

**Here's chapter 6. I had to do a little rewriting on this. This is again in Rory's POV and actually so will the next chapter. This is the beginning of the road trip and the start of the 20 questions game. Thanks again for all of the reviews! I really appreciate that. I hope you like the chapter.

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As soon as I storm out, I see four extremely curious faces staring at me.

"Let's go." I fume as I get in the front passenger seat and slam the door.

The rest of them quietly get in. No one says anything at first but then Logan braves it. "Ace…you OK?"

"I'm fine, Logan." I mumble as I stare out the window. "Just drive."

"Rory…"

"Just drive, Logan." I snap then I catch myself. I'm taking out my anger on him. "I'm sorry sweetie. It's just the last time I was this pissed off was when you were in the hospital after that Life and Death Brigade stunt and I screamed at your father over the phone to get his selfish ass to the hospital to visit you."

Logan smirks. "Well, at least that solves that mystery. I knew someone had to have gotten to him. I had just thought it was Honor."

"Nope, it was me." I look out the window and see the inn. "Hey if you guys look out the window you can see the inn my mom owns."

"Gilmore, I've got a question for you." Colin says as he leans forward out of his seat.

"Shoot." I reply as I close my eyes. That diner fight was exhausting!

"How the hell have you managed to remain sane living in a place like this?"

"Patience." I reveal. "Lots of patience and tons of coffee."

"Hey mate did you meet everyone we met today when you came here on your first trip?"

"I met virtually everyone in the whole damn town when I was here."

"No one has really changed since the first trip Logan made to Stars Hollow." I explain.

"You know after seeing everybody again today, I fully agree."

"So another question." Steph pipes up.

"Sure."

"Reenactment of what?"

"The Yale graduation ceremony. The whole town was in an uproar when they found out that no one except my parents and grandparents were invited. So they want a reenactment to see me get my degree. The only reason I'm even agreeing to it is because they'll exile my mom otherwise."

"This town is very…" Steph drifts off.

"Autocratic." Finn fills in.

"Trust me, I lived in that town for 18 years and there were more times than I care to remember when it felt like it was under the dictatorship of Taylor Doose." I crack my eyes open and glance at Logan. "So do you still find Taylor fascinating, Huntzberger?"

Logan shakes his head. "Nah, he's lost major point since he pissed off my fiancée. "

I smile then close my eyes again.

"Are you seriously considering wanting to have the wedding in Stars Hollow?" Logan looks nervous at the prospect.

I shrug. "I don't know. I made no guarantees. Although I was adamant that if we don't, there won't be a reenactment."

"And how did they take that?"

"I stormed out before I got a response." I explain. "You know what? Let's get off of this subject."

"Sounds good." Logan answers.

I open my eyes and turn around to face the three in the back. "So…which one of you is going to tell me where we're going?"

"We're sworn to secrecy, love." Finn informs me.

I glare over at Logan, "This isn't funny anymore, Logan." I pout.

"Sure it is." He grins.

"Logan…"

"Rory, if you ask again, I'll have you blindfolded and don't think I won't do it."

"Apparently you want to make this exactly like it was the first time I rode with all of you in this SUV."

"You know it's funny you bring that up, Gilmore." Colin starts.

"And why is that Colin?"

"Because part of this expedition is going to be a Life and Death Brigade initiation." Steph expounds.

"What?" My mouth drops open. "Are you serious?"

"Why not?" Logan replies.

"Well, besides the fact that none of you have been in the Life and Death Brigade in over a year, I never had the lineage for it."

"Not true, Ace." Logan argues and I scowl. "Your grandfather was in it."

"What?" My voice rises. "How the hell do you know that?"

"I did some research too. That's how my dad and your grandpa met. Want to hear something even more amazing?"

"Sure. Why not?"

"Your great-grandma was one of the 1st women admitted into the group."

"Trix?" My eyes grow wide.

"Who?" Logan gives me a look of confusion.

I shake my head. "Sorry. That's what grandpa's nickname was for her. So the original Lorelai Gilmore was a member, huh?"

"That she was. I'm honestly shocked that when you researched the article you didn't find that out."

"The only reason I even knew you were in it is because I found the picture of your grandpa. I didn't have a list of the members, Logan. It's called a secret society for a reason." I point out and he gets mute.

"She got you there, Logan." Finn smirks.

"You know there's something I've always been curious about Logan."

"What's that, Ace?"

"When I told you about how I knew about the group and at first you claimed that you had no idea what I was talking about what finally made you decide to help me out with the article?"

"I always had every intention of helping you out, Ace. Did you honestly think that I was going to admit out in the courtyard in front of everybody that I was in the Life and Death Brigade?"

"Well, no probably not. Are you sure it wasn't the fact that I told you I knew the license plate? Because I remember the conditions you gave me and of course I could have taken that license plate number, turned it into the police, and then you would have been in a world's amount of trouble then."

"Yeah, you could have but you didn't. You were too intrigued."

"Intrigued?" I raise an eyebrow in amusement. "Seriously out of the 4 of you the one I found intriguing wasn't you, Logan; it was Stephanie."

"Really?" Stephanie answers. "Well thanks Rory."

"Sure. If it wasn't for Stephanie walking into that bathroom in your dorm, 3 sheets to the wind, dressed in her ball gown, and wearing that gorilla mask, I would have been intrigued enough to try to research the Life and Death Brigade. But back to the real topic. So apparently I have the lineage for it. But I'm not rich. All of you got to bear witness to that today." I try to reason even though in my purse I hold my trust fund papers that I'm too afraid to open.

"Your grandparents are." Colin mentions.

I stifle a laugh. "Since when has that been enough?"

"Logan is." Steph adds.

"So you'd let me join by default since I'm marrying him? How does that make me rich?" I ask bluntly. "I could bet money that there'll be a prenup attached to this marriage."

Logan grimaces. "No there won't."

"Good luck getting your parents to go along with that, Logan." I pause for a second. "Do they even know that you proposed?"

"Not yet."

"Yeah, I didn't think so."

"What are you so afraid of, Ace? I got you to jump with me that day." He reminds me.

"How about the one that nearly killed you last year?" I retort but I already know what his response is going to be:

"It's called the Life and Death Brigade for a reason, sweetheart." He throws back.

"Fine, fine." I sigh. "OK if it would make all of you happy, OK I will."

"Don't do it for us, Rory." Logan answers dead serious. "Do it because you want to. After all, you did add #8 to the pro list." He grins his sweet smile at me and I smile back at him.

"What's #8?" Steph asks.

Finn pulls out my pro/con list from his pocket and scans it carefully. "Number 8, number 8. Ah, here it is: he wants and lets me be a risk taker."

Another collective ahh from everyone.

"So do I get the opportunity to finish reading the list now?" Finn begs.

"Sure, go right on ahead." I reach inside the outer pocket of my purse and pull out my sunglasses and put them on.

"Number 3 on the con list: We have had some pretty intense fights. But of course #3 on the pro list is: we have amazing makeup sex."

"Oooo…you're a dirty girl Rory." Steph teases.

"I try."

"Number 4 on the con list: we're still so young. On the pro side: age is just a number. Number 5 on the con list: there are unrealistic expectations as far as being a Huntzberger goes."

"Wow!" Colin interjects. "She figured that out before she married you. You've got a very smart girl, Logan."

"Are you kidding? I figured that out right after my dinner with him and his parents. That really should have been rephrased. Especially since it confused Logan this morning. They are unrealistic expectations as far as I go. I'm not going to be a society wife who has no life in the outside world. I refuse to be that. And that's what I gathered they wanted in a wife for Logan. His mother made that abundantly clear."

"That may be what she wants, but I have never wanted that." Logan adds.

I smile. I know that's never been what he wanted. He was beyond irate at his mother and his grandpa's behavior the night of the dinner. So much so, we stormed out.

"The rest are on the pro list though. Number 5: we've lived together for part of our relationship already. Number 6 I've already pictured myself being his wife. Number 7 He loves me. We've already read 8. Nine is he believes in me, ten is I believe in him. Eleven is we've conquered problems most people don't have to deal with. Twelve is sex with him in general whether it's the makeup version or not has always been hot."

Logan smirks at me.

"What?" I laugh. "Are you planning a rebuttal to that statement?" I raise a curious eyebrow.

"Absolutely not."

"Rory, love so happy you decided to include some sordid details." Finn comments. "Good to know that you do have an impure side."

"Of course I do." I declare. "Do you guys think I'm some squeaky clean, by the books kind of girl?" I glance over at Logan.

"Only at the very very beginning, Ace. I haven't thought of you that way in a very long time."

"Colin?"

"For a long time I did." He confesses.

"Steph?"

"In the beginning I did."

"Finn?"

"Not anymore."

"But you did?"

"Yeah I did."

I exhale slowly. I'm speechless. I look back at Logan. "When did you realize that I wasn't?"

"At the vow renewal."

"Finn, why don't you finish reading the list and then we'll play a little game." I suggest.

"Sure, love. Thirteen, I can't imagine my life without him."

"The feeling's mutual, Ace." Logan grins.

I beam at that comment.

"Fourteen: he's always encouraged me and has never doubted that I would be a journalist. Fifteen: I trust him and sixteen I love him."

"Did you start the list with that one?" Logan asks.

"It's called emphasis, dear."

"You're very thorough, Rory." Colin acknowledges.

"I always am with my pro/con lists." I reply as I gaze out the window.

"So what game are we playing?" Steph asks.

"We'll play 20 questions and I'll give you all the honest answers. I'm willing to do this so you can get rid of that mentality that I'm perfect. Nothing could be further from the truth. Each of you gets to ask 5 questions and I'm giving Logan the opportunity to ask 5 too even though he should already know most of these answers. Ask me whatever you want; the only condition is that I'm not answering anything x-rated. I'll go as far as r but not x-rated, got me?"

They all nod.

"OK. So who's first?"

Steph takes the lead. "OK so tell us about your first time."

I want clarification though. "My very first time or my first time with Logan?"

"Are you really going to talk about your sex life with Logan?"

"Steph, the only condition I gave was that I was not going to give x-rated details. And unless Logan has any problem with this…" I drift off as I wait for a response from him.

"Nope, be my guest."

"So which one Steph?"

"How about both?"

"OK." I nod. "My very first time was slightly scandalous but just slightly. I was 19 and I was home from Yale after my freshmen year. I slept with my very first high school boyfriend."

"And the scandalous part?" Colin asks.

"Well, he was still technically married at the time." I see three sets of amused eyebrows shoot up. "You two and Logan met him at that stupid matchmaker party that my grandparents threw. OK, so my first time with Logan would have been at my grandparents' vow renewal had my parents and Luke not walked in."

"Did they get an eyeful?" Finn smirks.

"Not really." I shrug. "We hadn't gotten very far. Let me tell you though. I was pretty disoriented when they busted in."

"It was the champagne, Ace."

"So the actual first time with Logan was a week later in my dorm room."

"So how did the two of you even get together?" Colin asks.

"That was at my grandparents' vow renewal. Actually, I have my dad to thank for the inspiration."

Logan's eyebrows furrow. "Your dad?"

"How's that?" Finn asks.

"I had a talk with him about his first kiss with my mom. He told me how she marched right up to him and kissed him. She told him that she just wanted to know what it would be like." I turn to Logan. "Do you remember me telling you that?"

"I remember." He nods. "So that was a secondhand line you used." He remarks.

"Excuse me…that was a Gilmore original line and it was better than the reaction I got out of you." I huff.

"What was I supposed to say? You were wearing a suit for god sakes."

The three in the back all look like they're in a state of confusion.

"Sorry. I was skipping ahead. Anyway, Logan comes to the party with his parents and his…friend." I stop there because Logan interrupts.

"I love how flustered and jealous you got at that." He laughs.

"Shut up Logan. Anyway, so I get him to dance and pretty much confront him about why he hasn't taken the initiative to ask me out. He then came up with the lame ass excuse about me being 'too special' to date him."

"That was not lame." He argues. "That was the truth."

"Anyway, I spend the next 5 minutes convincing him as to why we should date. He still seemed reluctant until I dragged him off with me to one of the country club dressing rooms with half a bottle of champagne."

"I went willingly, thank you." He corrects me.

"He asks me if I really want to do this and I throw out that line that my dad gave me that my mom said to him."

"Ahh…that's cute." Steph comments.

"Well I don't know about cute but it was the truth at the time. I had wondered so the line fit well."

"Really?" Logan sounds surprised.

"Really? You hadn't? That's nice to know." I tease him.

"No of course I had." He shakes his head.

I smile. "So anyway, like I said we didn't get far before we got stopped."

"So what were you talking about with his reaction?" Finn asks.

"I was wearing a suit because my mom was Maid of Honor for my grandma so I stood up as like the best woman for my grandpa. I was in a suit and after that first kiss he just had to say he felt like he was kissing a guy…"

"I didn't mean it that way. It was the suit." He protests.

"It was a very feminine suit and you could have pictured me in a dress, you know. It's not as if you hadn't seen me in a few at that point."

"It's funny you say that, Ace mainly because it didn't stop you from kissing me again." He points out.

"OK so long story short. You made the first move, Rory." Steph concludes.

"I had to. We wouldn't have gotten anywhere if I waited. We wouldn't have danced or even gotten together."

"Yes we would have. More than likely on both accounts. Do you honestly think I'd show up to your grandparents' vow renewal and not dance with you? You were the reason I even went." He reveals.

"Well, at that point, I wasn't sure." I admit which is the truth.

"Thank you so much for clearing that up for us, love." Finn grins then holds this hand out to Colin. "I'll take my $100 back now, Colin."

"Damn it!"

"You had a bet on that too?" My eyes grow wide under my sunglasses.

"Yeah but that one was made a long time ago though."

"How many other bets have you made about us? Did one of you bet that I would say no?"

"Nah, just the one about how high on the list on cons Logan's parents were."

"You know even though there were significantly less cons than pros, the first two cons equaled out to about 5 of the pros each. But even with that it was still less than the number of pros. Of course nothing ranks higher than missing my mom. Nice try though, Finn." I tell him. "OK so what else?"

"Just how much do you tell your mom?" This question is actually from Logan.

I ponder for a moment then answer. "Oh, I'd say about 95%."

"95%?" Logan's eyes grow wide in amazement.

"Relax, Logan. The details of our sex life are within the 5% I don't tell her about." I reassure him.

"I wasn't actually worried about that even though that is a relief to hear. I'm just surprised at how high that number is."

"She's my best friend, Logan. She's my Maid of Honor. There's almost never a day that goes by that I don't talk to her at least once. When I dropped out of Yale for that semester and we didn't talk, that nearly killed me." I confide.

Logan's hesitating, I can tell.

I groan. "Out with it, Huntzberger."

"I'm just debating whether or not to ask this question or not."

"Shoot."

He sighs. "OK so I know that you talked to her after the original proposal."

"Yes I did." I nod.

"If she would have told you not to marry me, would you have said no?"

I can tell everyone is holding their breath while waiting for my answer.

"Not necessarily. I value her opinion Logan and she is my best friend but I don't do everything she says, regardless of what you may think. I would have made that pro/con list no matter what. OK so when did we switch platforms for the questions? I thought we were talking about the more risqué side."

"OK. Where's the riskiest place you've had sex?" Colin asks.

"Is this Yale specific or anywhere?" I think I'm surprising them by getting more clarification to these questions.

"Why not both?"

"Hmm…where do you think at Yale, Logan?"

"Umm…probably the library, don't you think?" He offers.

"Yeah. The Beinecke Rare Book Library."

"I'm impressed, love." Finn comments.

"Well thank you Finn. Now not at Yale, hands down that has to be at my grandparents' house and no I'm not talking about the pool house. I'm referring to being in the bedroom next to theirs." I gaze over at Logan. "That took a hell of a lot of doing."

"No kidding." He concurs.

"By the way Finn the reason you couldn't read those in front of them is because they're still very sensitive on the subject. Two weeks before my 21st birthday, I don't know if Logan and I were being more amorous with each other in front of them or not. Anyway, they got to thinking that we were getting closer to having sex so in an attempt to stop me they decided to sic their priest on me."

Finn chuckles. "Are you serious, love?"

"Oh, she's dead serious." Logan rolls his eyes at the memory.

"They all got a rude awakening when they found out the truth. That was when I got moved into main house and the bedroom next to my grandparents'." I give Logan a sly grin. "Of course we were able to pull off one rendezvous in that room. The only downfall was that Logan had to get out of my room by shimmying down the tree that was just outside my window."

"It took 15 minutes to get down too."

They all laugh.

"OK so next question please."

"What's the most ridiculous thing you've done?" Finn asks.

"Give me a timeline."

"OK. At Yale and not something you did with Logan."

"Kissing Paris freshman year at Spring Break in Florida." I rattle off without a second thought.

"You kissed Paris?" Logan gasps. I think I may have actually shocked my fiancé.

"Well, to be honest she kissed me and it went on about 3 seconds too long before I shoved her off of me but yeah I kissed her. I just love her reason though. 'Well Rory Madeline and Louise make out to get into clubs.' Well Paris go make out with Madeline or Louise and leave me the hell out of it."

"And they are?" Steph asks.

"People I knew from Chilton. Shock of shock they were at spring break and telling us what they do to get attention."

"Interesting." Colin muses. "So what's the deal with you and Paris? Are you friends or what are the two of you?"

"We're friends." I tell him. "We were bitter adversaries at Chilton. Hell the only reason she got student council president is because I ran as her running mate. Something changed when we got to Yale though. Maybe it's the fact that we spent our first two years rooming together but yeah we're friends. Paris has her moments. She does come useful for some things."

"Like what? Logan asks.

"Like last year when you were in the hospital and I was trying to get information about you she wore down Dr. Schultz and he told her what was going on and then she told me." I glance back at Steph. My sunglasses are still on. "Steph, you've been relatively quiet. What's your next question?"

"OK so be honest…what was your opinion of Logan when you first met him?"

"I couldn't stand him honestly." He actually looks a little hurt me saying this. "Oh, quit pouting. You know this. He was cocky and arrogant and insisted that the next time I saw him I should call him Master and Commander."

Logan dies laughing. "My God! You actually remember that?"

"Of course I remembered that. Anyway, he didn't really care who he was insulting or the fact that he did insult me."

Steph gasps. "You insulted her?"

"Now hold on a second, Ace. I did not insult you. I was just making a comment."

"Potato, Potahto. You thought that the reason I was helping throw a wake for Professor Flemming was that I was sleeping with him. Newsflash to all of you. I don't sleep with guys who are three times my age. That is a Paris Geller move, not a Rory Gilmore one."

"I figured that out Ace but come on, I wasn't all bad."

"As time went on yes that became true. That took time though especially after that damn skit the three of you felt necessary to put on in my class."

All of the guys die laughing.

"Oh come on Rory you can't still be mad about that. You know you enjoyed it." Colin teases me.

"Whoa! Wait!" Steph cuts in. "I'm missing something here. What are you talking about?"

I sigh. "OK so sophomore year I had a talk with my old headmaster at Chilton who asked if I would show one of the Chilton students around. She was spending like 3 days with me. Ever since she arrived though nothing went to plan. She was with me in one of my classes that Professor Bell was teaching and the next thing I know Colin busts into my classroom and demanding to know why I left him and how he loves me."

"Really?" She starts to laugh then turns to her boyfriend. Colin and Stephanie have been together for some time now. "You did that?"

"It was all Logan's idea." Colin tries to reason.

"Thanks, Colin." Logan responds.

"So then Logan comes in and they start fighting and Logan's yelling, 'Rory, tell him you don't love him'."

Logan interjects. "It amazes me just how good your memory is…"

Steph is still laughing so I continue. "My professor's threatening to call security and what do you know, Finn shows up in a police uniform."

Stephanie's laughing so hard that I think she's going to pass out from not breathing. "Steph, you need to remember to breathe here." I remind her.

"Don't worry I am."

"So Finn separates them and decides to ream me because I'm to blame for their behavior. I should be ashamed of myself." I mock. "'They used to have pride, they used to have dignity, they used to have balls. Dammit Gilmore give them back their balls.'"

Now everyone is hysterically laughing…everyone except for me.

"You do have an impeccable memory, Gilmore." Colin concludes.

"Well thanks, Colin. It's more often than not a hindrance than a help." I tell him. "After they leave, I spend the rest of my class with my head in my hands and listen as the rest of the class decides to review their performance."

"And what was their general consensus?" Finn asks.

"Oh you guys don't even deserve to know that." I groan.

"Oh come on now Rory." Colin prods.

"Well what do you think? They all loved it." I exclaim. "I guess I should be thankful that after that skit Anna managed to stay awake for the rest of the class."

Stephanie is trying to calm down after that. "So what happened then?"

"Well, let's see. If looks could kill, Logan would have been dead. The next time I saw him he got called a whole bunch of colorful names."

"Very colorful. I believe one of them was butt faced miscreant." Logan laughs and Steph starts to laugh again.

"Want to know how I got them back, Steph?"

"How's that?"

"My grandparents really like Logan…quite frankly I think a little too much honestly. It's creepy how much they like him. My grandpa was so happy that we spent so much time together at their stupid matchmaker party. I honestly didn't think he would along with my plan but he did. I got him to go up to Logan in front of Finn and Colin and tell him about he heard from Professor Bell about how Logan professed his undying love for me. And then grandpa mentioned to him how he already talked to Mitchum about this and was talking about marriage."

Steph is just laughing her ass off. This time I join in though. I glance over at Logan. "And I watched around a corner as all this happens and see Logan's expression go from happy to panic." I smile at him. "Learned a lesson, didn't you?"

"Yeah." He exhales slowly. "I can't believe you're still bitter about that though."

"I'm not." I insist and I mean it. "But it wasn't one of my better memories for several reasons."

"Like what?" Logan asks.

"Like now in between that skit and later that night when I saw you, Anna and I went back to my dorm room and got to watch Doyle walking out of Paris' bedroom with her bathrobe on."

Everybody groans. "Oh God Ace I really didn't need that image in my head."

"Well, I didn't want that image in my head either, Logan but unfortunately it was stamped there. So then Anna got the impression that's what happens all the time. So maybe you can understand another reason I wasn't happy. Between the skit, walking in on Doyle and Paris post coital action, the fact that Anna got picked up by campus security, and that I had let down by old headmaster, it wasn't a great set of memories. OK let's move on. Next question please."

"How many boyfriends have you had?" Finn asks.

"Three. There's Dean, Jess, and then of course Logan. Logan and I have been together the longest of the bunch but it's just barely longer than me and Dean."

"That's a moot point now though." Logan reminds me.

"Yes I know dear since we're getting married and all but I'm just explaining." I tell him.

"So why didn't the others work out?" Colin asks.

"Jess was…" I hesitate to think of a good word to describe him, "an enigma. Complicated, brooding, and ran away without even a goodbye to me. We had connected though on an emotional level and there were times when he just really understood me. There were times, too many times, when we fought though. That last one was really bad. We were going to go to Prom in Stars Hollow since that's where he was going to school but he missed too many days and flunked out. I found out about that from my ex-boyfriend though. I found him sitting in a bedroom and we started making out and of course he wanted to actually sleep with me but I put a stop to it since he was doing it for the wrong reasons. It kind of went severely downhill from there. The next thing I know I hear from Luke that Jess is in California. Luke is Jess' uncle. He's made a few appearances since then. Logan actually met him once. That was not a pleasant experience."

"Don't remind me." Logan groans.

"Anyway, off of him. Dean is a really sweet guy and the first time we broke up was because he told me he loved me…and I couldn't say it back. It didn't take long before I realized how I felt about him though and did tell him how I loved him. The second time had to do with Jess and the third time, well I'm not sure but if I had to venture a guess it could be the 20 guys who followed me out to meet him at my grandparents' party." I tease.

"Oh, so that's our fault, huh Gilmore?"

I sigh. "No, not really. It was a lot of things. We were never seeing each other. I think he may have also been a little intimidated by my life at Yale. It was just seeing all of you guys that night that made him realize that. Got a question, Steph?"

"Yeah so do you have any regrets?"

"Let's see. I think probably the thing that I regret the most was taking that semester off from Yale. I let what Logan's father said get the better of me and doubt my passion to be a journalist. I shouldn't have let it get to me like it did."

"I really wish you would have let me do something Rory." Logan tells me as he glances over at me.

"It's in the past. We've moved past it but now looking back at it, there were just so many other better ways I could have handled that situation other than doing a boat napping, you know?"

"It still shocked all of us that you did that." Finn says.

"I'm still shocked I did it. I think the thing that was so hard about it was that my relationship with my mom took a major hit after that. It took around 6 months before we could move past everything." It gets quiet for a moment so I ask. "How much longer until we get there?"

"Rory…" I know that voice. That's his warning voice.

"I'm just asking because I realize that I forgot to put in Lane's CD and it's just over an hour long. So I'm curious if we're going to be able to listen to all of it."

"Probably most of it."

"Besides, I don't have to ask where we're going. We're going to New York City, I can tell. I've traveled this road enough to know that."

"Yes but you don't know what we're going to do there." Logan points out.

I sigh. "That I have yet to figure out."

Logan grins smugly. There are times I would love to wipe it off his face.

I open my purse and pull out the CD and my eye catches on something. It's the envelope that my mom was talking about. I slowly pull it out and examine it. It's just a plain, unmarked commercial envelope that's sealed but I can tell that there is more than one piece of paper in here. I can tell there are actually several pieces of paper in this envelope and that scares me.

"What's that?" Logan asks.

"My legacy." I whisper.

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**OK so...anybody want to take a guess on how much Rory is getting in the trust funds? I'll give you a hint. I made it three digits :D One of them alone is three digits long :D. Also the LDB stunt is going to be several chapters away. However it does get mentioned quite a bit. I've got something BIG planned for that :D Anyway, if I get a chance I'll get the next chapter out before the end of the weekend. Please please remember to review!**


	7. Rory's Legacy

**OK so here's Chapter 7. The next chapter we'll be back in Logan's POV but this one again is Rory's. As for the money, when I said three digits, I meant in the millions. I had one of the reviewers mention to me that three digits is only hundreds and they are correct. I didn't put millions after it but it's three digits in the millions. Anyway, keep reviewing! I do appreciate all of them and I try to respond to all of them. If I missed responding to you, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to miss you! Anyway, like I said, keep reviewing! I may still get Chapter 8 this week. I'm off work until Friday. I need to finish my other chapter on the other story I'm doing. Hope you like the chapter!**

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I don't know how long I have been staring at the envelope when I hear Logan ask. "What are you talking about, Ace? What do you mean your legacy?"

"Nothing." I quickly shake my head. "It's just that my mom told me that my grandma gave her this envelope to give to me." I continue to stare at it blankly. It's almost like it has mystical powers.

"Are you going to open it?" Logan presses.

I tell him the truth. "I'm scared to open it." I confess.

"Oh, come on Ace. Open it."

I shrug. "OK. Fine." I tear open the seal and pull out the paperwork. There are 7 pages of paper in front of me. The first two pages are a letter written by my grandpa.

"Well, do you plan on keeping us in suspense, Gilmore or what?" Colin retorts.

"In a second, Colin." I mumble as I turn to the third page. It has me aghast. It's the trust fund that Gran, Grandpa's mom, did for me when she was alive. My eyes are as big as saucers at the amount…20 million. She gave me 20 million dollars.

"Oh my god." I whisper.

Logan stares at me with a look of astonishment. "What's going on Ace? You're scaring me."

"You have every right to be scared, Logan." I tell him as I flip to the next page and see the trust fund apparently that my grandparents did for me. I have to look at the fifth page before I see their amount…30. 30 million dollars. So now I'm up to 50 million dollars total.

"This can't be real." I mumble. "This has to be a dream."

"Rory, seriously what's going on?" Logan genuinely panicked now.

It's the last two pages that push me over the edge though when I see the paperwork. It's from dad's parents. When I see the stipulations and the amount of money I don't pass out even though I want to. Instead I shock the rest of them by screaming and not a happy scream. A blood curdling scream. They gave me…150. 150 million dollars. There must be a typo here. These people never liked me.

Logan veers off the road. "What? What?"

I dive into my purse to retrieve my cell phone. "Nothing. Just keep driving, Logan. I'll be fine. Once I make this phone call." Three rings later someone picks up.

"Hello?"

"Hi grandpa."

"Well, Rory hello. How are you?" He asks in his usual genial tone.

"Fine grandpa. Or least I will be when I get an explanation to what's the deal with the paperwork I received?"

"You mean the trust funds?"

"Yes I did happen to catch the words 'trust fund' on about every other page of the last 5 pages." That remark grabs everyone's attention. "So what's the deal? Why am I getting all of this money now?"

"Because you're marrying Logan." He states casually.

"What?" I snap. "What you do mean it's because I'm marrying Logan?" Logan's head whips over to look at me. He starts to go back to the shoulder of the road. "No, keep driving." I whisper to him then turn my attention back to my grandpa. "Grandpa please tell me that's not what you said."

"It's indeed what I said but not what I meant." He then clarifies. "What I meant was you were scheduled to receive the trust funds when you either turned 25 or when you became engaged."

"OK so it's because I'm marrying Logan that I'm receiving them 3 years early?"

"Yes, that's correct."

"Grandpa, I never wanted or needed all of this money. The only thing I have ever asked you for is to pay for Yale and to pay for Chilton, that's it. Why are you giving me all this money?"

"Because you deserve it." He answers matter-of-factly. "Besides you paid for Chilton and Yale. The money came out of the trust fund. Now, have you told Logan about the trust funds?"

"No I haven't told him anything about them."

"Why not?"

"Because right now he's driving and when he would hear the amounts, he would more than likely crash the SUV."

Logan shoots me a skeptical look and I cover the phone with my hand. "You think I'm joking but I promise you, I'm not." I inform him. "Besides grandpa he won't tell me what we're doing on this trip so he'll get to wait until we get to New York City to find out how much is in there." I smirk devilishly at my fiancé. "However, I may tell our friends though because they're so damn good at keeping secrets." I hear the three in the back cheer.

"Grandpa, is that last document for real? I mean, is that really something that Straub and Francine really put together?"

"Yes it's real, Rory. All of those documents have been notarized. Why don't you think it's real?"

"Because they hated me!" I exclaim.

"Hate is a strong word, Rory." Grandpa argues.

"Does my dad know about this? Or better yet, does mom know how much is in each of these?"

Grandpa clears his throat. He's trying to stall I can tell. "I'm unsure about your father but I don't believe you mom knows the amounts no but I do know that she knows about the funds being done."

"Well, here's what we're going to do. I'm going to call my dad and make sure that he was aware of this and you and grandma get to break the news to mom. She needs to know and I have no intention of telling her." I tell him bluntly. "Then when we get back, you, me, Logan, grandma, mom and dad are all going to have a nice lengthy conversation about this, OK?"

"If that's what you want, Rory."

"It is."

"Did you read the letter I wrote?"

"I skimmed it." I admit. "But I haven't had a chance to read it in full detail."

"Well, make sure you read it and let Logan read it too."

"I'll read it to him I promise. I better get going, grandpa."

"OK well have a good trip."

"We will."

"Goodbye Rory."

"Goodbye grandpa." I hang up the phone and gaze at 4 overly curious faces. I sigh. "I'll tell all of you in a minute after I make this phone call to my dad." I turn to face Logan then. "Well, except you. You get to wait to hear until we get to New York City." I punch in my dad's phone number and it rings a couple times before he answers.

"Hello?"

"Hey dad."

"Hey kiddo! How are ya?"

"I'm good dad good." I hesitate a little which he seems to pick up on.

"Uh-oh. What's wrong Ror?"

"Nothing really but I have to ask you a question and I need you to be honest with me."

"OK…"

"We've always been honest with each other, haven't we dad?"

"Of course kiddo. What's going on?"

"Did you know about the trust fund that Straub and Francine set up for me?"

"Ahh…got the paperwork, did ya?"

"So you did know?" I gasp. I can't believe he never told me.

"Yes I knew but I only found out about it when my dad died. I didn't know about it before then."

"Dad, explain something to me, will you?"

"Sure kiddo."

"What the hell were your parents thinking when they appointed me the Hayden heiress?"

I think everyone's eyes nearly pop out of their heads when they hear this.

"They were thinking that you're their only granddaughter, Rory and they wanted you to have something."

"Dad, I haven't been their only granddaughter for 5 years now. Name Gigi the Hayden Heiress, not me." I beg and I can tell everyone is amused by this conversation.

"She's a Hayden Heiress too."

"She is?" I repeat. "So they did make her one?"

"Yes they did. She's not going to know about it for at least 10 more years and she's not going to be seeing a dime of the money until she's at least 21."

"That's probably smart. I better go. I just wanted to make sure you were aware of this."

"I am."

"OK, I'll talk to you when I get back, OK?"

"Sounds good. I love you, kiddo."

"Yeah I love you too dad."

"Bye."

"Bye." I hang up the phone and put it back in my purse. I put in Lane's CD and close my eyes and hum along to the music.

"I honestly can't believe this is happening." I mumble.

"So are you planning on reading that letter, love?" Finn asks a few minutes later.

"Yeah I might as well. I told my grandpa I would." I slowly open my eyes and remove my sunglasses. I fold the rest of the papers neatly and stick them back into the envelope.

I clear my throat then proceed to read:

"_Dear Rory,_

_On behalf of your grandmother and I, we would like to tell you how truly proud of you we are. You have turned out to be a smart, beautiful young woman and we know that you will make an outstanding journalist. We hope that you will get everything that your heart desires._

_I'm sure you were not expecting to hear that you have a trust fund. Truthfully your grandmother and I started the fund when you were born. For the first 10 years, we had put in $25,000 a month. Then from the time you were 11 until you were 20, we decided to increase the amount to $75,000 a month. We knew that there was bound to be an Ivy League college in your future and we wanted to make sure you would be able to get into any college that you wanted._

_It was shortly after you turned 20 that you started to date Logan…"_ I pause for a moment as I look over at him. "I'm surprised it took them this long before they mentioned you given how much they love you."

Logan smirks and Finn asks. "Are you actually serious about that Rory?"

"Oh, hell yes I'm serious. The first dinner I took him to at their house, we spent like 10 minutes just talking about the lapels of his suit jacket."

Everybody laughs. I continue to read then. "OK so where was I? Oh right…

_It was shortly after you turned 20 that you started to date Logan. From the moment you started dating we knew that you would be together forever. Logan is a fine young man and your grandmother and I could be not more thrilled that you decided to accept his proposal. He loves you, Rory_…OK so I'm going to skip the next three sentences as they have chosen to malign my ex-boyfriends." I sigh.

"What did they tell you?" Colin asks. "That they weren't good enough for you?"

"Pretty much." I nod. "And a couple of other things. Back to the letter now.

_When you started to date Logan, your grandmother and I started to increase the amount in the trust with an impending wedding in mind. We decided to put half a million a month every month for however long you dated."_ I steal a glance at Logan. "So how's your mental math going? Can you figure how much is in their trust fund?"

"Are you telling me that there's 18 million dollars sitting in that trust fund?"

"No there's more than that. The 18 million is just what came out of our relationship time. There's 20 years worth of money before that."

I can tell the mental math is getting to him though.

"30, Logan. 30 million dollars reside in that trust fund."

"What?" He yells as he lets the SUV drift off to the side of the road.

"Logan!" I scream.

He catches himself and careens back onto the road.

"You see? This is why you're not hearing the rest of the amounts in the other 2 trust funds until we're in New York City and parked." I remove the paperwork and hand it back to Steph. "Don't give him any idea how much is in there. I'd rather not die today."

"Got it."

I return to the letter:

"_As for the other two trust funds, your gran had put a million dollars a year until she died. She may not have showed it in the best way, but she was very proud of you."_

"Wow!" Steph exclaims. She must have gotten to the last page apparently. She passes it onto the boys. "That's incredible, Rory."

"I'm beyond stunned." I tell her then turn the page to keep reading. _"Shortly before he died, Straub met with your grandmother and I. He, Francine, and we discussed your future. After a lengthy conversation we reached the conclusion of you being the heiress to both the Hayden and Gilmore fortunes." _I pause then do a double take. "Wait…what? To both?"

"Your grandparents have thought a lot about you and your future, Ace."

"Yeah, apparently."

"Whoa!" The guys shout together.

"Amazing, isn't it?" I murmur.

"I'm sorry. What did you say about not being rich, Gilmore?" Colin asks.

"Yeah, I guess I am but there's a huge difference. I never wanted to be rich. Or should I say I never needed to be this rich. This much money comes with strings attached. I need to look over my grandma and grandpa's papers and see if they put a clause in there about our first born being named after one of them." I grab the paperwork back from Finn.

"Rory!" Logan laughs.

"I'm serious, Logan. I wouldn't put it past my grandma. I mean I love her but I'm sure she's thrown in some guidelines. That's a lot of money. You know what? Let's stop talking about the money. That's the last thing I even want to think about right now. Whose turn is it to ask me a question and please keep it to something other than the money." I plead.

"What's the thing that scares you the most about marrying Logan? Steph asks.

"The fact that I have to have his parents for my in-laws." I groan. "Otherwise nothing else does."

Logan beams at this comment.

"What's the one thing that Logan does that drives you absolutely crazy?"

"Crazy good or crazy annoying?"

"Annoying of course."

I ponder for a brief moment. It actually does take some thought.

"Can't think of anything, huh, Ace?" Logan smirks.

I smirk back, "Nice try, Logan. Actually there is one thing. Now he hasn't done this in quite awhile but in the beginning of our relationship he did it a lot. He liked to twist my words around and read too much into things."

Logan's mouth drops open. "When have I done that? You're exaggerating, Rory."

Colin quickly shakes his head. "Oh no she's dead on. I know exactly what you're talking about, Rory." He then looks at Logan. "You did it last night."

"Was he acting like I already told him no?" I guess.

"Yep, he was."

I smack Logan's arm. "Dammit, Logan! Tell me why the hell you do that, would you?"

"I don't read too much into things." He argues.

"I guess we'll get the opinion from everyone, won't we?" Before he can argue, I continue. "OK so have you all heard the story about how we went from casual to serious?" I'm surprised when no one said they heard it. "OK so here's what happened. This was about a month after we started dating or about a week and a half after Finn's Tarantino birthday party…"

"That party was a blast." Finn interjects. "We need to do that again soon."

"I spent the night at my mom's house on the bathroom floor drunk off my ass from the founder's day punch at the town party…"

"Wait, the town actually throws parties?" Colin looks aghast.

"Shocking, I know." I roll my eyes at the mere thought of that party. "OK so after being upset at the fact that I got so drunk and also at the fact that I hadn't heard from Logan in a week…"

He looks like he's ready to argue but I stop him. "Uh – uh. No you keep quiet. The only responses I'm interested in are theirs. I get back to Yale and I tell him that I hate the casual dating thing. I'm tired of it and I'm walking away and we can go back to being just friends. Meanwhile he apparently took this to mean that either he ditches the casual lifestyle and dates me exclusively or I'm walking away. He tells me that I need to stop issuing ultimatums to him."

"Loge…"

"Yes Colin?"

"Where the hell did you get an ultimatum out of what she said?"

"Shut up." Logan groans.

"I remind him that I just want to go back to being friends and I'm not issuing ultimatums. He then decides he'll do it and I tell him no."

"Really?" Steph raises an eyebrow. "You told him no? Even after what I told at the Life and Death Brigade thing?"

Logan frowns. "What did she tell you?"

"Huge, huge long line to get to you. And Steph I realized that due to the girls calling and popping in during our conversation. That didn't matter. I brought up the fact that in the beginning he had told me that he couldn't be my boyfriend. He had to do some major convincing before I agreed. So…what's everyone's opinion on that story?"

"Dude quit reading too much into things." Colin remarks.

"Yeah, sorry Logan. I see Rory's point." That was Stephanie.

"Sorry mate. There wasn't any ultimatum there."

Logan sighs after heading all of his turn on him. "OK, OK. So maybe there wasn't an ultimatum per se but something to keep in mind Ace. Had I not stepped up and agreed to be your boyfriend we wouldn't have gotten together exclusively and I wouldn't have proposed and we wouldn't be engaged right now."

"Good point." I nod. "So how much longer before we get there?"

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**OK so that's chapter 7. I realize that I didn't finish the letter and actually what's funny it wasn't until I was reviewing this did I notice that I had forgotten to put how much the Haydens had given her. As for the amount the Gilmores gave her, I realize that it may not be completely believable considering what happened in season 4 when Rory's grandpa went back to work and risked his pension and stuff but hey it's just a story. Also, what you should know is that I had no intention of having Rory blowing all this money. I just honestly can't see her doing that. She does make a few expensive purchases though. Anyway, keep reviewing! I love to read them!**


	8. The Plaza Hotel

**As promised, here's chapter 8. Thanks for all the reviews! Really you guys are the best! :D So we're now back to Logan's POV. This is the start of the New York part. They arrive at the hotel during this chapter. I know I surprised you all with the amount that Rory inherited and I made it that big because I wanted it to shock Logan's parents when it comes time for them to find this out. As for the stipulations and the prenup, I'm currently researching that. I don't know much about prenups. Anyway, keep remembering to review! I LOVE to read them!**

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My fiancée is a lot of things: beautiful, intelligent, sexy as hell but when it comes to surprises she is worse than a little kid as far as patience goes. It's driving her crazy now which in turn is driving me crazy.

I keep one hand on the steering wheel and reach into my right pants pocket and toss to Stephanie who is sitting directly behind Rory a black silk tie.

"Blindfold her." I order.

"Logan!" Rory screeches.

"Rory, I told you if you kept asking me how much longer you getting blindfolded so blindfold her Steph."

Steph acquiesces and blindfolds Rory who is now pouting and has her arms folded across her chest. She's so cute when she's huffy. "So who wants to ask me the next question? By my calculations Steph and Colin each have 1 left and Finn has 2." She tells them.

"What were you thinking when you were standing on the top of that scaffolding right before you jumped?" Finn asks her.

"That if I died, I was coming back and haunting Logan for the rest of his life." Of course with her blindfolded I can't tell by looking at her if she's serious or not.

"If that's the case, why did you jump? If you remember right I told you that no one was forcing you." I remind her.

"I did it to prove to everyone including myself that I could. Besides the fact that there was no way in hell I was going to back out up there. All I would have done by doing that was proved to you that you were right and that I did live a sheltered life." She informs me. "Steph, what's your last question?"

"OK so we know what irritates you about Logan but now we want to know you love about him."

"Now's not the time to ask that question, Steph." Rory grumbles. "I may just say there's nothing."

"Ace we'll be there in like 15 minutes, OK? You'll see then." I try to assuage her anger.

She gets quiet for a couple minutes. She uncrosses her arms which tell me that she's at least calming down. "The fact that he's a risk taker and that he's not afraid of anything." She answers quietly.

I smile at the comment even though it's not true. Well, it was true until last night when she hesitated at my proposal.

"Quit smirking Logan." It's as if she could see through the blindfold. She's smiling though. I laugh.

It's truly amazing just how well Rory gets me. She understands me in a way that no one has been able to before. Not even Colin or Finn. My life has always been convoluted but somehow with her she makes it seem less hectic. Especially since I have a domineering, pompous father and a narcissistic, chain smoking mother as my parents. The only person that makes my family tolerable is my big sister Honor. Back when we were kids, Honor and I leaned on each other a lot. We got each other through the nightmare of our childhood.

What makes me happy is the fact that my sister loves Rory. Honor, at one point, had told me how she thought I did a good job in having Rory as my girlfriend. She thought Rory would be the perfect choice if she had to pick someone to be my wife. Rory consults her mom with big issues; I consult my big sister. I also talked to her this morning. She'll be meeting us at the airport and fly with us to Palo Alto.

"Colin…last question."

"So what do your parents really have against Logan?" He asks her. Honestly, I'd love to hear the answer to this because I've always wondered.

She sighs heavily. "I'll try to keep this on the shorter side. First of all, my dad doesn't hate Logan. Quite the opposite actually. Granted their initial first meeting happened while we were in the process of getting naked…"

All of us laugh. She then continues. "The second meeting came a year later. It was right after I moved in with Logan and they found out that they were a lot alike. They were comparing notes on all the schools they got kicked out of. Mom…" She groans. "I wouldn't say mom has truly hated Logan. Her hatred got reserved for Jess. Mom has seen more than dad has seen though. I think she started to not like him as much like the day before that Tarantino party and we were shopping and we saw him with another girl…"

"But that was when we were…"

"I know that Logan." She interrupts me. "But she didn't know that and told me that she couldn't believe I was even doing the casual dating thing because that's so not me. You said it too at the vow renewal which I proved both of you right. Then of course came the first dinner at my grandparents' house. My mom attended too and she got to see him almost get away with swiping my grandmother's antique sewing kit. But I think what was the worst was the whole grand theft boating incident."

I open my mouth and start to say something but she cuts me off. "No, just listen, OK? I know you want to refute this. Just let me finish, OK?"

"OK." I nod.

"The grand theft boating incident put everything over the top. Logan, of course, wasn't to blame for that. But that didn't stop her from doing it anyway no matter how many times I told her it was my idea. A lot of it was her with this picture of me in her head and the fact that she didn't think her 'perfect' daughter was capable of doing a boat napping of her own free will. Since then, it had been little things really. She wasn't too happy to hear that he decided to cheat on me with his sister's bridal party…"

"Hey!" I tell her. "We were broken up!"

"You stick with the Ross side and I'll stick with the Rachel side. Keep telling yourself that to make you feel better. Anyway, since then, they've had good moments and bad moments. I honestly believe that they've pretty much resolved all their issues with his first trip to Stars Hollow. They covered a lot of stuff over pie and ice cream while I slept in the next room. OK Finn, last question."

"OK so that brings up an interesting question then since you mentioned Logan and Honor's bridesmaids. Have you ever cheated on Logan?"

I'm actually holding my breath for this question. I have never even really thought of her cheating on me.

"Trying to make this a fast engagement, Finn?" She retorts.

"Is that a yes?"

"No, it's not a yes. Of course I've never cheated on him. Had I ever thought about cheating on him? Sure."

"WHAT?" I yell.

"Oh, calm down. It was right after I found out about your little orgy. You were in Costa Rica and I went to see my ex-boyfriend in Philadelphia. He got his book published and I went to the book reading stuff at the bookstore. So I let him kiss me."

"You did WHAT?" I'm just so in shock.

"Just shut up, Logan. There's a difference between one kiss and sleeping with three girls."

"I did not sleep with…"

"Oh, I'm sorry; two of the girls, you just fooled around with the other one. But you want to know what the difference is? While I was kissing him I almost immediately pulled away when I remembered, 'oh wait I have a boyfriend. I shouldn't be doing this.' So I stopped thanks to my conscience. You have absolutely no right to judge me, Logan." She fires back. "Since then, absolutely not. I wouldn't even think of it."

It is a few minutes later before I'm able to speak. She is right, though. I really don't have any right to judge her. At that point in our relationship we were in a gray area. She was my first real girlfriend and I guess the whole 'taking some time apart' thing wasn't really code for 'break up' like I thought it was.

"Say something Logan." She demands.

"It's fine." And it is. It has to be. I'm not going to let this change anything. "Let's just move on."

"Ok so 20 questions game is now over unless you want to ask me anything Logan."

"Anything else I need to be worried about that you haven't told me?"

"No, I promise. Absolutely nothing else."

"Then I'm good."

"Ok so it's time to move off of questions revolving around my sex life and move to a better subject…like yours Finn."

"What about mine darling?"

"I've come to a realization about it today." She declares.

"And what's that?"

"It's the accent, isn't it? That's how you get girls to go to bed with you so easily isn't it?" The rest of us dissolve into laughter.

"What was your first clue?" Colin asks.

"Watching my married best friend act the way she did around him."

"It helps but that's not always the case love." Finn tells her. "That's doesn't work on everyone."

"That's right. It didn't work on me and it wouldn't work on me." Rory informs him.

"Were you trying?" He asks bluntly.

"Ahh…no and I'll tell you why. You couldn't remember the fact that we had already met or even my name the 1st 6 times we met. If I'm going to sleep with a guy he sure as hell better be remembering my name."

"Touché darling." Finn grins.

"Well, besides the fact you didn't want anyone but me, right?" I ask.

"Of course."

I pull up to the Plaza Hotel a few minutes later and park right in front. The SUV comes to a halt and Colin, Steph, and Finn bolt out and into the hotel. For a moment it's just me and Rory in the SUV. I lean over and give her a quick kiss which startles her. I think it startles her on more than 1 level.

"Logan…"

"Yeah, Ace?"

"Are you OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just want to pretend it never happened OK?"

"I can do that." She leans in and kisses me then. "Logan…"

"Hmm…"

"Quit stalling. Show me already."

I sigh. "I'm seriously never giving you another surprise ever again." I conclude as I take off the blindfold. She glances out the window and her eyes grow wide.

"The Plaza Hotel?" She gasps. "We're spending the next week here?"

"No, just the next 3 days." I grin. "The rest will be spent in Palo Alto."

"Really?" Her eyes light up.

"Yeah, I need to get your opinion on the house plus I want to show you where I'm going to be working. I also have to sign my contract and get my hiring bonus."

"Bonus?"

"Yep and after that we'll go shopping. We've got a whole house to furnish."

"Wow Logan. That's amazing. Look at you being an organized planner." She teases.

"Well, thank you. I try." I unbuckle my seatbelt, get out, and open the passenger door for her. "So…want to see our home for the next few days?"

"Absolutely." She unbuckles her seatbelt and I extend my hand to her. "Well, thank you."

We stroll into the hotel hand in hand. I handle all of the room arrangements at the front desk while Rory patiently wait on the couch in the sitting area. Oh, sure now she chooses to be patient. Seriously I'm going to think twice before getting her another surprise. A few minutes later we step into the elevator and head to the penthouse floor. Steph and Colin have their own room and Finn has a room by himself…well at the present time he does. I'm sure that will change before the night is over though.

I throw the door open and sweep Rory into my arms and carry her inside.

"Logan!" She giggles. "What are you doing? We're not even married yet." I set her on her feet in the living room area.

"Wow! This is an incredible room." She looks around in awe then heads into the separate bedroom. There's also a mini kitchen area with an island. In the bathroom there's a jetted whirlpool tub and a walk in shower and double vanity sinks.

"Only the best." I remind her. "So tell me…now that we're on solid ground and not in a moving vehicle, are you going to let me see how much money you were given?" She reaches in her purse and produces the envelope that has her trust paperwork in it.

"Be my guest but you may want to sit down when you look at it." She advises. "I'm going to call Lane and help her resolve her love life." She grabs her cell phone and hits a button as she takes a seat on the California King sized bed.

"Hey, it's me." Rory says. "Yeah we just got to New York."

I take a seat next to her on the bed and pull the papers from the envelope and review them. I'm in shock at the amount that I'm seeing. Rory got 20 million dollars just from her great-grandma.

"Lane, are you seriously telling me that you never took my advice last year?" I hear Rory ask her. I'm curious as to what advice she gave her.

I skim the papers of Richard and Emily's trust and see that yep, there's 30 million dollars. My god she's up to 50 million total.

"Honey, reenacting the scene from 'Here to Eternity' is great for theatrics but it's not believable otherwise. I'm serious. What? No, no one's here. It's just me and Logan here and he won't say anything."

Ahh…so they must be talking about sex. The 'Here to Eternity' part should have tipped me off to that.

"Lane you can't completely write off sex. You haven't done it enough times to write it off. No sweetie first times are always awkward. You should never base your future sex life just on the first time. If that was the case, the population would die out."

I chuckle as I go to the last pages where I see the Hayden trust. I don't know much about her dad's parents but from the way it sounded neither does she. I stop breathing when I see the amount. There are three digits…150. She got 150 million dollars from her grandparents who at the last she knew hated her. It appears that she is looking at me out of the corner of her eye and instinctively puts her hand on the back of my neck and starts to rub it. I finally start to breathe so she stops then. At least now I know why she made me sit down and why she wouldn't tell me when I was driving. She was right; I would have crashed.

"Lane, listen to me. Here's what you need to do tomorrow. Have your mom babysit the boys for the night, go to the newsstand, buy a Cosmo, grab Zack, and then proceed to spend the night in your bed just trying the moves they give. If they're too advanced, just try the regular way and keep trying it until you're comfortable with it. It's been a year, sweetie. It's time to try it again."

Wow! The woman's went a year without sex. I feel sorry for her; actually I feel sorry for her husband too. Rory glances over at me and smiles. It's one of these coy smiles she secretly gives me every once in awhile. It normally means that she's feeling ravenous. I normally follow up by flashing her my classic smirk.

"Don't even think about it." She warns me as I inch closer to her. "What? No, Lane, I'm talking to Logan. Seriously just try it again and make sure this time it's in a bed. No one gets good from their first time…"

I flash a look like I beg to differ and I hear her groan. "Get real Huntzberger. You were not good just after your first time. Men and their egos, I swear. Lane, it takes time and doing it several times before you actually really enjoy it."

I kiss her neck then to see what kind of a reaction I get out of her. She pushes me back. I try it again and she pushes me back again.

"Logan!" She scolds in a whisper. "Stop it."

"Oh come on Ace. First time as a betrothed couple…" I inform her as I climb on top of her. "You owe me from this morning…actually you owe me for this afternoon too." I kiss her neck again and this time she sighs. It's not the normal kind of sigh though. It's the kind of sigh like she's giving up the battle.

"Lane, I have to go. I have an extremely lascivious fiancé who won't leave me alone. I owe him from earlier. OK so I'm going to call you when I get to California in a few days and we'll reconvene about this. I'll talk to you later, OK? OK, bye." She clicks her phone off and stares at me with a glare.

"What?" I ask innocently.

"What? You couldn't wait til I was off the phone?"

"Umm…no." I take her phone from her and put it on the nightstand then kiss her. "So tell me Ace…"

"What Logan?"

"I had never asked what your overall consensus was on our first time together."

"Did my conversation with Lane make you overly curious?"

"Mm-hmm." I say as I start to unbutton the buttons of her top.

"Logan, you know my opinion on our sex life. I said it not only once but twice in my pro/con list."

I grin. "I said the first time though, Ace."

"It was great." She tells me.

"So no awkwardness then?"

"Ahh…no. You do remember that the first time we slept together that wasn't the first time I had sex right?"

"Right." I did know that but I'm still trying to figure out what she told Lane then.

"Logan, I wasn't talking about the first time with someone new; I was talking the first time ever."

My eyes grow wide. "You're telling me that Zack was the first person she slept with and that she hasn't had sex in a year."

"Her honeymoon to be exact."

"But the boys…"

"Conceived on the 1st and only time they had sex."

"Wow!" I exclaim. So that conversation makes a lot more sense now. "She wrote it off?"

"Yeah, very stupid move. I'm trying to get her to try it again now. She needs to. She's going to have a very long, extremely boring marriage with no sex."

I smirk then. "So Ace…"

"Yes dear?"

"How about we have another reminder of just how good our sex life is?"

She starts to laugh as I kiss her then throw her top on the ground.

Half an hour later, after we finish having sex, we're lying in bed under the covers and Rory looks like she's about ready to doze off any minute even though it's only 8 o'clock.

"Logan…"

I glance over at her, "Yeah?"

"You haven't said anything about the trust funds."

That's true. I hadn't. I've been too stunned. Rory now has 200 million. "It's unbelievable, Ace."

"Yeah, I figured that was what your reaction probably was considering how I saw you stop breathing."

"What are you going to do with all that money?"

"We, Logan." She corrects me. "What are we going to do with all of this money. Do you honestly think I'd keep 200 million dollars to myself and not share it?"

Look at her; so unselfish and yet so naïve.

"That's really sweet of you Rory but I would reread all of your paperwork again."

Just by me saying that a wave of panic crosses her face, "Why? Did you read something that I missed?"

I quickly shake my head. "No, no. It's just you were worried about what kind of conditions were going to be tied in with it. There might actually involve a prenup on your side." I tell her.

She scowls though. "There better not be otherwise they can take their money back. I don't want it." She looks adamant too.

"Rory…" I start but she cuts me off.

"Logan, I survived 22, almost 23 years without all of this money. I didn't need it then and I sure as hell don't need it now. Sure it's great to have it to fall back on but you proposed before you knew I was getting it which means you knew we would be OK without it."

"Right, right." I nod.

"We either both have access to it or they can keep it. Besides my grandparents should know me well enough to know that I wouldn't just go blow all of it."

"Impulsiveness has never been one of your strong suits." I agree.

"The one thing I'd like to do though is buy a condo."

"Buy a condo?" I frown.

"Well, yeah for after we're married." She quickly adds. "I mean until then we can always rent the house that has the avocado tree in the backyard. I'm thinking long term here though."

"Long term, huh?"

"Yes. That's what marriage is, you know."

"Thank you, Ace. I know that. Have you given any thought as to when you want to have this wedding? Are you thinking still this year?"

"Maybe." Rory shrugs. "I mean I do already have my side of the wedding party planned."

"You do?"

"Yeah. My mom's the Maid of Honor, Lane's the Matron of Honor, Paris, Honor, and Stephanie are the bridesmaids, and of course Gigi would be the flower girl."

I grin. "Your sister is going to love that."

Rory beams. "Yeah she will. I know how you told me that your sister loves me but let me tell you Gigi loves you."

I laugh. "Really?"

She nods. "Yeah. Did you know that ever since last Christmas she has been asking me and asking me when we were getting married?"

"And what did you tell her?"

"I told her that you hadn't asked me. I told that if you asked, then I'd say yes." She reveals.

"You told her that you'd say yes?" I repeat. "Did you fail to mention to her your propensity of making pro/con lists?"

"Six year olds can't grasp the concept of pro/con lists, Logan. They're still in that 'princess' phase where everyone lives 'happily ever after'."

"You would have given her a jolt of reality had you said no."

"OK. I have a confession to make." She rolls onto her side and interlaces our fingers together. "I made the pro/con list but honestly the only real con was the very 1st one. Everything else could be tolerated. Your dad and I can be civil. Your mom…she's another story but I'm sure we could learn to tolerate each other."

"Oh, she's going to have to do more than tolerate you." I enlighten Rory as I kiss her hand. "She's going to have no choice."

"When are you going to tell them we're engaged?"

"When we get back and not a second before that. We are going to enjoy this trip to the full extent."

"Especially since I think all we're going to have when we get back is stress."

I'm seeing anxiety cross her face. "Hey, hey. I don't want you to worry. We're going to get through all of this together."

"I know we will. Are you hungry? Do you want to order supper?" She suggests as she sits up.

"Sounds good."

"Are we eating with them or by ourselves?" Rory asks. That's a very good question which I don't know the answer to.

"Let me check with Colin and Steph and they can check with Finn." I punch in Colin and Steph's room number into the phone on the nightstand. Steph answers on the 2nd ring.

"Hello?"

"Hey Steph."

"Hey Logan."

"Do you guys want to get supper?"

"Actually, we just ordered room service." Steph mentions. "Do you guys want to come hang out over here and eat?"

I ponder for a moment then tell her, "We'll probably eat first then come over."

"Sounds good. See you in a little while."

"Bye."

"Bye."

I glance over at Rory who is now donning a one of the white fluffy robes. She's staring at her cell phone as if she's trying to use telepathy to dial it.

"What are you doing?" I frown.

"I'm debating whether or not I should call my mom."

"Why are you hesitating?"

"Because I'm not sure whether or not my grandpa told her about the money like he was supposed to."

"So call and casually ask if she has heard from him."

"And if she says no?"

"Make up some excuse."

She sighs. I know she's doubtful as to if this conversation will go well but I'd like to believe it would. Rory punches #4 on her cell phone which is her mom's cell phone and waits 3 seconds before she almost hangs up. I stop her though.

"Hold on."

About 10 seconds later, I can hear Rory's mom pick up.

"Hello darling daughter!" She tells Rory. I stifle a chuckle because Lorelai always has the most interesting ways of answering the phone.

"Hey mom."

"So how's New York?"

"How do you know I'm in New York?"

"Easy. Logan told me."

"Logan!" Rory smacks my arm.

I start to laugh. "Come on Ace! Hey Lorelai."

"Hi Logan." She answers. "So hun how's your trip so far?"

"Good. We really haven't done much yet. We're going to eat then head over and hang out with Steph, Colin, and Finn." She hesitates and gives me a daunting look.

I mouth ask her.

"Listen, mom, have you talked to either dad or grandpa since graduation?"

"Yes I talked to your grandpa a couple hours ago. So I was right, wasn't I? It was money, wasn't it?"

"Yeah it was. He told you how much?"

"Yes, he did."

There was dead silence between them for a moment. Rory looks uncertain with how to proceed. "Mom, what do you think?"

"Well, I'm happy for you, hun. I mean 50 million dollars is a lot of money. Wait, did you ask if I talked to your dad?"

"Yeah."

"Now, I haven't talked to him. What's going on?"

Rory's looking at me like she needs lots of moral support.

"You can tell her, Ace." I whisper to her.

"Tell me what? What's going on?"

"Go on." I whisper.

"Mom, included with grandma and grandpa's papers was the trust fund that Straub and Francine did for me."

"Christopher's parents?"

"Yeah…so umm…they named me the Hayden Heiress and gave me 150 million dollars."

I can tell her mom is stunned.

"Mom…say something."

"They…they gave you how much?"

"150 million dollars."

"And they made you…"

"The Hayden Heiress."

"And how do you feel about that?" Lorelai asks in a quiet voice.

Rory sighs loudly. "Honestly, I don't know. I called dad to make sure that it was true and he said it was."

"So your dad knew about this?" Lorelai's voice raises.

"I guess since Straub died. Apparently Gigi is set up to be an heiress too when she gets older."

"Really? Ror, listen. I'm going to call your dad and have a talk with him…"

Rory cuts her off though, "Mom, don't get mad at dad. I'm telling you what I told grandpa. When we get back, me, Logan, you, dad, and grandma and grandpa are going to sit down and go over all of this."

"No Rory. I want to talk to him." Her mom protests and Rory is resigning.

"OK so talk to him but I don't want you fighting with them especially since I'm not sure I'm going to keep the money."

"Why wouldn't you keep the money?"

"It's all going to be based on the stipulations. If anything says there's a prenup involved, the money's going back."

"Rory…"

"Mom, I don't care. Logan and I have a deal. I'm not signing one for him and he's not signing one for me. If anybody has a problem with that, they can keep their money. I don't want it."

I whisper to her that I'm going to go order a pizza. She nods and I go into the living room to order. They tell me it's going to 30-40 minutes. I come back into the bedroom and Rory's now off the phone but she seems sad.

"You OK?"

She slowly nods. "So how long before the food gets here?"

"Around half an hour."

"Good. I'm hungry." She admits.

"Yeah, me too. So how did the rest of that call go?" I ask as I put on the other fluffy robe.

"It was OK. I have no doubt that she's going to fight with my dad, though."

"Why? It's was your grandparents' decision not your dad's."

"No that's not why. It's the fact that he's known it for 3 years and never told her."

"Ahh…" I nod.

"So what are we going to do tomorrow?"

"Well, I figure you and Steph would more than likely go shopping since you'll need more clothes."

"Right. I will. And what would you and the guys do?"

"I don't know yet." I shrug. "I'd have to go talk to the guys."

"What do you think about December?" Rory does a 180 now and changes subjects.

"December?" I repeat as I sit back down on the bed after I prop up one of the pillows against the headboard. "You mean to get married?"

"Yeah. To get married."

"It's going to be cold." I point out.

"We could always go someplace warm…like Florida. Oooo…we could always go to Disney World."

My eyes grow wide at the idea. "Are you serious? You want to get married at Disney World?"

"Why not? We wouldn't be the first ones. Tons of people get married in Cinderella's castle." She tries to reason.

"It's a thought." I conclude. It would be nice and warm. "I don't know."

"Hey, I'm not going to be the only one making decisions here, Logan. Throw some ideas out."

"I was thinking in New York but then again I wasn't thinking about December."

"Well, it's not like it would be an outdoor wedding you know. Could be pretty with snow. When were you thinking? Earlier or later?"

"Earlier…like October or November."

I think that came as a shock to her. "Really? You think that would be enough time to get everything done?"

"Yeah, I think it would. We should go out just the two of us the day after tomorrow and we'll go look around."

"OK, sounds good."

There was a knock on the door then which I know has to be our pizza. I quickly throw my clothes back on and head for the door, leaving Rory to change. I pay the pizza guy and tip him generously as Rory emerges in the clothes she wore after graduation.

"What do you want to drink?" I ask as I head over to the bar to make myself a scotch neat.

"I'm going to go down the hall and get myself a Coke." She heads for the door but I grab her wrist at the last moment. She frowns at the gesture. "What?"

I smile, "Just take one from the fridge."

She skeptically opens the door to the full sized fridge and sees that it's well stocked with Coke among other snack foods.

"Did you do that?" She asks.

I nod. "Of course I did."

"Well, thank you." She gives me a quick kiss. "That was sweet of you."

"You're welcome."

I got a large pizza with half cheese and half everything and then also cheese breadsticks. I grab her a piece of each along with one of the breadsticks and sauce and hand her the paper plate.

"Thank you."

"Sure." I answer then take a sip of my scotch.

We each dive right in to our pizza and I hear Rory moan. I look over at her curiously and she grins.

"What?" She laughs. "It's damn good pizza. God, I love New York."

"Me too."

"I'm going to miss it." She confesses.

"You're acting like we're never going to come visit again. You know that's not true right? Especially since we might have the wedding here and everything."

"No, I just decided. It's not might. We'll have the wedding in New York."

"Really?" I raise an eyebrow. "What about Florida?"

"We could always save Florida for the honeymoon."

I laugh again. "Only you would want to spend our honeymoon at Walt Disney World." I tell her as I take a bite of my pizza.

"Excuse me. I'm not the only one who has wanted their honeymoon there. There have been thousands."

"I'm sure there have been. Don't you want to go to like Paris?"

"I've been to Paris. You've been to Paris." She reminds me.

"We haven't been there together, though."

"Yes that is true. Something else to think about. Of course we could always take an abbreviated version of the trip we were going to take to Asia."

"Yeah, we could."

"We'll keep that on the list of possible options." She says.

"Sounds good."

We finish eating about 20 minutes later and get ready to head over to Colin and Steph's room.

"So what kind of initiation things are you guys going to make me do?"

I'm curious as to why she's asking when she should know the answer to this already. "You know I'm not at liberty to tell you that Ace. Nice try though."

"Seriously, I hate you."

"Seriously I love you too." I smirk right before I kiss her.

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**OK so hope you liked it. Next chapter will be hanging out in Steph and Colin's room and then Rory's shopping trip. I also wanted to mention to you I already have where they're doing the LDB event. If any of you want to know, let me know in a review. I don't want to post it in the author notes just in case people want to be surprised. Also it all depends on your view whether or not Rory actually cheated on Logan when she kissed Jess. Did everyone catch my 'Friends' reference? I used to love that show! It will more than likely be the beginning of next week before I get Chapter 9 out. I may get it out sooner but plan on early next week for sure. Remember to review!  
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	9. Shopping and Punishment

**OK so better late than never. I'm so sorry that it took me so long to get this chapter out. My parents were in town for a few days and I just kept putting this off. Thanks again to everyone that reviews. I really really appreciate it. OK this is in Rory's POV. I'm still trying to decide if this was out of character for Rory or not. It may be a little. Anyway, I hope you like it and remember to review!**

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OK so I must admit that the wait was worth it. This is a great surprise. I can't wait to see Palo Alto and our house Logan picked for us. I have no doubt that he picked a good one.

I honestly wasn't surprised when he shot down my Disney World idea. That would have been fun though. But New York is more practical; more…us. We have spent so much time in New York that that should have been the most obvious choice. Of course this will piss off everyone in Stars Hollow but it's my wedding, not the towns.

I can't stand the fact that Logan won't tell me what they plan to do for the initiation. It makes me wonder if they're going to make me jump again. Probably considering that's what the Life and Death Brigade is known for. I wouldn't put it past them to make me do something different though. I have no doubt they'll make it interesting.

I grab another Coke from the fridge and head for the door. "Ready to go?" I ask as I lay my hand on the door handle.

Logan nods and we head down the hall 3 doors to Colin and Steph's room. I knock on the door then glance at Logan and smirk at him.

"What?" He asks.

"Nothing." I shake my head casually. I'm bound determine I will figure out more about what they're planning to do, though.

"Oh, come on Ace. That look meant something." He tells me as Steph opens the door.

"Hey Rory, Logan."

"Hey Steph." He tells her as we follow her into the living room.

"So what's going on?" She asks as she takes a seat next to Colin on the couch. Finn is stretched out in the nearby blue recliner.

"Nothing." I reply loftily as I hop up onto one of the barstools that is at the breakfast bar. "Logan is letting his imagination run away with him."

"You know Ace I'd really like nothing more than to believe that smirk meant nothing but I know better. You're plotting."

"So what have you guys been up to?" I turn my attention to the other 3.

"Not much. Eating the food from room service and drinking. What have you guys been doing?" Colin answers.

"Not too much." I take a sip of my Coke. "Deciding on some of the wedding plans, talking to my mom about the money, and eating supper."

"And so what were you arguing about?" Finn asks before taking a swig of his scotch.

"Logan thinks I'm plotting against him because I asked what you guys were planning for the rest of the initiation and he refused to tell me. So while standing outside your door I smirked at him and now apparently I'm plotting against him." I chide him. "You're being silly."

"Why did you ask, Rory?" Colin asks. "Are you worried?"

"No." The answer comes out as soon as the question was asked. "I was just curious, that's all."

"Sure you were." Logan smirks at me.

"Shut up Logan." I growl at him.

"You really shouldn't worry, Rory. It's not as if you didn't pass the truth part of the initiation." Colin informs me.

"OK so let me ask you something then, Colin. How do you know that I didn't lie to you with those answers I gave?"

"Because you could have when Finn asked the question about cheating on Logan but instead you admitted you kissed your ex-boyfriend."

"Ahh…so it took all 18 questions before you believed me?" I retort. "That's great. It's really sad it took you that long to believe my answers."

"Now we never said that we didn't believe you, love." Finn clarifies. "I think it was just your answer to that question that sealed that everything you were saying was true. I had no doubt you were telling the truth."

"Yeah me either." Colin adds.

"I knew you weren't lying. The thing is Rory is that one of the things you learn in the Life and Death Brigade is how to read people. That's how they know whether or not whether or not lying." Steph explains.

"You guys couldn't even see my face during the 20 questions."

"No, I'm talking about right now."

"How lovely." I respond blandly as my phone starts to buzz. "Hell-lo?" I answer in annoyance.

"Ror?" It's my dad. "You busy?"

I sigh. "No, not at all, dad. I'm just sitting around talking about pointless, ridiculous things with my friends. What's up? My guess is you've talked to mom."

"I have." He admits.

"Did she yell at you?" I ask.

"Well, let's just say that she was less than pleased."

"I'm sorry. I told her not to get mad at you. Especially since I may not keep the money."

"Yeah, your mom mentioned that." He tells me. "Why wouldn't you keep the money?"

"I'm not going to keep it if there's any kind of prenup attached with it. Logan and I have a deal going. He's not making me sign one and I won't make him sign one."

"Rory…" Oh god here we go again.

"Dad, let's clear this up right now because I've got something riding on whether or not I keep the money. Have you seen all of the paperwork for this trust?"

"Yes, I have."

"And are the words 'prenuptial agreement' mentioned anywhere in there?"

"Yes."

"OK then. Give the money back to your mom or add it to Gigi's money. I don't want it."

"Rory, you need to think about this." My dad tries to tell me. "At least spend a few days thinking about it."

"I don't need…" I start to say but I'm cut off.

"Please?" For some odd reason it seems really important to him so I give in.

"Fine. I'll give it to the end of the trip. I'll let you know when we all get together when Logan and I get back."

"Thanks kiddo."

"Dad?" I just have to ask this. It's killing me not to.

"Yeah?"

"Why is it so important for me to be the Hayden Heiress? Your parents didn't like me, dad. Why is it so important to you?"

"Rory, you deserve to have something from them. I have spent the last several years explaining to them just what a great job your mom did raising you and what a smart, successful young woman you turned out to be. It wasn't just me talking. It was also Richard and Emily. They came to the heiress decision together."

I sigh as I look around the room at all of my friends and Logan. All of their eyes seem to be gazing intently on me.

"OK. I promise to give it serious thought, OK?"

"That's all I ask."

"One last thing Dad and then I better go."

"What's that?"

"Did you tell Gigi that Logan and I are getting married?"

"Oh yeah. She was so excited. She started to jump up and down."

I laugh. "I figured that would be her reaction. Well, you can let her know that she's the flower girl."

"She asked me that and I told her I would ask you. She's going to be thrilled."

"I'm glad." I smile. "I'll talk to you when I get back, OK?"

"Sounds good. I love you kiddo."

"Me too. Bye dad." I hang up, let out a huge sigh, and run my fingers through my hair.

"So your mom talked to him?" Logan asks.

I close my eyes and nod before I lay my head down on the counter. "My god this day just needs to be over. Why the hell has this day lasted so long?" I complain. It started out great but ever since the trust fund papers came out it went from being a rock and grew into being a boulder.

"A lot did happen today." Logan agrees.

"And as the day wore on, it had just become more exhausting." I glance at my watch. "Good god, it's only 11 o' clock. Steph, where do you want to go shopping tomorrow?"

"I figured we would go to 5th Avenue, 57th Street, and Madison Avenue." Steph answers. "There are lots of shops in that area."

"Sounds good." I mumble.

"You ok, Ace?"

"Fine…just tired." I tell Logan as I yawn.

"So what are you guys going to do?" Steph asks.

"Probably get drunk and go see some strippers." Finn answers and the guys start cheering.

"Over my dead body." I say through another yawn. "The bachelor party I'll understand. Mainly because I have every intention of going to see male strippers for my bachelorette party. But otherwise if Logan wants to see any naked women dance around, it's going to be me and in our room."

The guys start pouting. "Oh come on, Rory!" Colin whines.

"I'll tell you what Colin. If your girlfriend is fine with it, then I will be too."

"Forget it." Steph scoffs.

"I rest my case." I smirk as I fall asleep.

The next thing I know Logan is lifting me up and carrying me back to our room. I'm still asleep but I can feel him pick me up. I wake up at 1 in the morning and I find that I'm in bed under the covers. I look and I find Logan's side of the bed empty. I'm sure he's still over in Colin and Steph's room. I'm so tired but drudgingly get up to put on my pajamas on. I climb back into bed and within 5 seconds I'm asleep. The next time I wake up it's 4 o'clock and this time I can feel Logan's arm wrapped around my waist. I love that feeling. It's so comforting. It makes me relax and it relieves all of my stress.

I get up at 8:30 and Logan is still asleep so I head into the bathroom to take a shower. Fifteen minutes later, I emerge in that nice fluffy robe I had on yesterday feeling refresh. I peek out the door and Logan's back is to me so I can't tell if he's still sleeping. I quietly open it the rest of the way and creep out. I sneak into the living room and order almost every breakfast item that room service has. While I'm waiting for the food to arrive, I get onto my laptop to check my email. There are almost 2 dozen of them and just about every one of them are well wishes on the engagement.

Twenty minutes later, the food arrives. I tip the waiter then lock the door after he leaves. I wheel the cart into the bedroom and notice that Logan is still sleeping peacefully. I lean over and give him a quick kiss but he decides to turn it into a longer one. His eyes slowly open and he grins.

"Good morning." I smile back.

"Good morning Ace." He slowly sits up. "What time is it?"

"About 9:30. I just got room service. Are you hungry?"

"I'm starving." He admits.

"Good. I got just about every breakfast food they offer."

He does a once over on the cart. "Everything looks really good."

"That's what I was thinking too."

"I'll be back in a minute." He tells me as he gives me a quick kiss and heads for the bathroom. He comes back out a couple minutes later as I finish pouring me some coffee.

"Juice? Coffee?" I hold up each carafe.

"Both." He grins. I pour him a glass of each then take a seat Indian style on the bed.

"So did you sleep good?" He asks as he takes a drink of his orange juice.

"Yeah." I nod. "Overall, I slept great. How did you sleep?"

"Good."

"What time did you get back?" I ask as I grab one of the plates of waffles.

"Uh…2:30 I think." Logan answers. "When did you change? When I came back in, you had your pajamas on."

"I woke up around 1 and put them on." I told him in between bites. "I fell back into bed as soon as I changed."

"You were tired." He comments as he takes a bite of the pancakes.

"Yeah. I was beyond exhausted." I admit as I drink my coffee. "OK so about last night maybe on a subconscious level I was plotting." Oh, hell it was on a conscious level but that's neither here nor there. I'm admitting I was plotting at least.

"You don't say." He smirks.

I smirk back. "I want to wait to do any of the initiation stuff. It will be pointless to do anything if I don't keep the money."

"Rory, we need to talk about the money. You know I love the fact that you don't want to have me sign a prenup but maybe you should just go along with it."

I can't believe what I'm hearing. "Are you serious? Logan we had an agreement."

"Rory, are you having any doubts about us getting married?"

My eyes grow wide in shock. "What? No, of course not."

"So there's absolutely no doubts about whether or not this marriage is going to last."

"No I have no doubts. I know that this marriage will last." I vow.

"Then why does it matter if there's a prenup or not? We have no reason to worry."

I sigh heavily. "So you're fine with this?"

He nods. "I'm 100% fine with it."

"OK. I'll talk to my dad but the agreement is going to be having some revisions made to it."

"Like what?"

"Like I'm having a sunset provision put in."

"A what?"

"A sunset provision is where the prenup will become null and void after a certain amount of time. I'm thinking that 5 years should be suffice for my grandmother. It better be otherwise she's going to just be keeping her money or giving it to Gigi."

"Rory…"

"I'm serious Logan. It's either that or they keep their money and the Hayden Heiress reserved solely for Gigi."

Logan sighs. "At this point my guess is you've made your mind up and there's nothing that I can say that will change it."

"You're correct."

"OK. If that's what you want…"

"It is."

It takes us another 15 minutes to finish eating then Logan informs me that he's going to go take a shower. I hear the shower turn on and collect our plates and put them on the cart then wheel it into the living room. I come back into the bedroom and sit in the middle of the bed. I reach inside the nightstand and grab the notepad and pen that reside inside. I sprawl out on the bed and start to write. Ten minutes later, Logan comes out, robe clad and drying his hair with a towel.

"What are you doing?" He peers over and sees my writing.

"Writing my name." I tell him.

He grins. "You mean your new name?"

"Yep." I start to count. "Oh my god, Logan if I wrote my full name with your last name included it would be 36 letters long!" I exclaim.

He frowns. "No, it'd be 30."

"Well, this is counting Hayden too. Regardless 30 letters is still a lot."

"Yeah, it is but Rory you've never went by Lorelai so I don't think you need to worry about that."

"Rory L. Gilmore-Huntzberger is 23."

"I've got an even better idea."

I smirk. "Let me guess. You want it to be the option that's only 16 letters long?"

"Would that really be so bad?"

"Personally? No. Professionally? Yes. More than likely professionally I'm going to stay Rory Gilmore. Personally I won't hyphenate it and it will just be your last name. I just don't want your last name professionally because everyone is going to think I'd get my job because of your father."

"I understand." He nods. "It could work to a disadvantage."

"Exactly."

Our hotel phone starts to ring so I reach across the bed to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Hey Rory."

"Hey Steph."

"What time did you want to go shopping?"

"Whenever you're ready." I tell her.

"You want to just come over to our room in like 10 minutes?"

"Sounds good."

I hang up and turn to Logan who is now in the process of getting his clothes on.

"So are you upset about how I don't want you to go to the strip club?"

Logan shrugs as he's buttoning up his navy blue polo shirt. "No, not really. I think the only person you really disappointed was Finn."

I then go ahead and dig into my suitcase and pull out my coral floral shirt that I have and khaki capris with tan slingbacks. I'm dressing for comfort above everything else. I've went shopping with Stephanie before and we normally cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time.

"So tell me Ace…"

"What's that?"

"Are you really going to dance for me?"

"I've done it before Logan."

"Not lately."

"Well, we will change that." I tell him right before I kiss him.

A few minutes later, we head over to Steph and Colin's room. Colin answers the door and tells us to come on in.

"Feeling better, Gilmore?"

I nod. "Much better. It was such an emotionally draining day yesterday." I admit as I take a seat on the couch next to Finn and Logan is on the other side of me. I see Logan's expression change and I roll my eyes. "Once again, Logan has chosen to read too much into things. I'm not talking about the proposal, Logan. I'm talking about the stuff with the reenactment and the trust funds." My eyes light up. "Oh by the way, I told Logan that you guys should hold off on the initiation stuff because right now I'm not sure whether or not I'm going to keep the money."

"Are you serious?" Steph gasps as she comes in from the bedroom. "Why wouldn't you?"

"Because of all the stupid prenup stuff."

"But seriously Rory…"

Logan cuts in. "Give it up, Steph. Once Rory has her mind up about something, she won't change."

"I mean you can still plan if you want but we won't do anything this trip. I'm sure you'll want to get everybody together anyway. Even though it would be interesting with just the 4 of you. Why don't you figure around the time of the wedding?" I suggest.

"And when is that going to be?" Finn asks.

"Logan wants either October or November."

"Logan does?" Colin asks raising an eyebrow.

"Hey I wanted December in Florida at Cinderella's castle at Walt Disney World but he shot down that idea."

"Oooo…that would be cute." Steph gushes.

"Don't get any ideas." Colin warns her.

"So we decided we'd get married here in New York City in October or November."

"So are we going to go dress shopping today?" Steph squeals.

I raise an eyebrow. "Already?"

"Well, it can take 2-3 months to make a dress, you know."

Colin frowns. "And how the hell do you know that Steph?"

"No comment." She smirks. "Ready to go, Rory?"

"Sure." I turn to face Logan. "OK. I have to go." I give him a quick kiss. "I'll see you later."

"See you later. I love you, Ace."

"I love you too, Logan. Bye." Steph and I head for the door and I turn around right before I leave. "Oh and Finn?"

"Yes darling?"

"No strip clubs." I remind him. He's not happy about that of course but he doesn't voice it.

We wander down the street and Stephanie is starting to speed walk.

"I figure we'd start on 5th Ave. and then work our way over to Madison Ave."

I'm hobbling along trying to keep up with her. "Steph, we've got all day. Slow down."

"If you slow down, you die."

"Steph, I know we're going to go to a lot of places but seriously slow down, OK?"

She slows down to a more moderate pace.

"Thank you."

We hit Bendel's first and I find a couple of really nice tops. I reach into my purse to get my credit card out and I see it's been taken out and replaced. I slide the new card out and look at it. I stare at it blankly until the cashier brings me out of my trance. I hand the card to her and she runs it through the machine then notices how it's not signed. I sign the slip then pull out my driver's license to show her that I'm Rory Gilmore. She hands the card back to me and I quickly sign the back and put it in my wallet. She checks out her items then we head down to Saks. As we head in the store, I pull out my phone and press 2.

"Wow! You're calling him already?" Steph notes.

"Only because I'm confused."

"Hello?"

"Hi honey."

"Hey Ace."

"Where's my credit card?" I ask.

"It's in your purse."

"No, Logan. **My **credit card. Not the one that has your number but my name on it."

"With me in my wallet."

"Logan…"

"Ace, I'm not using it. I just got that one for you so I wanted you to use it. I actually put you on my account awhile ago but I just got the card a couple days ago."

"Well, that's sweet of you, Logan but you didn't have to do that."

"I know I didn't have to but I wanted to."

"Well thank you. So what are you guys doing?"

"Just sitting in Colin's room discussing our honeymoon."

"Why are you discussing our honeymoon?" I ask, confused then it dawns on me why. "I'm not devoting the whole honeymoon to the initiation, Logan."

"It wouldn't be the whole honeymoon, Rory." He informs me. "I figure we'd do a week out of it at wherever you want to go and the last week would be devoted to wherever we decide to for the initiation."

"Did you call her?" I heard Colin ask in the background and I don't know if he's referring to Logan calling me or not.

"Yeah, she's on her way. She said like 15 minutes." Finn answers and I have my answer. They have a stripper coming to the hotel room. I start to get mad internally. It makes what I tell Logan sound even meaner.

"I'm not going to Costa Rica." I tell him adamantly.

He groans. "Rory, first of all, the decision is made by us, not you. You get no input on the location. That's why you get to pick the 1st week. Second of all, being in Costa Rica had nothing to do with me being in that accident. It was the fact that I was drunk off my ass when I did jump, OK?"

"Yeah." I reply coldly. I don't know if I'm more upset by the fact that he won't tell me where we're going or the fact that they're getting a stripper. Right now, it would be the latter. Of course there is still something that I can do to stop it from happening. "I have to go find Steph. See ya." I click the phone off.

"Why did you lie to him?" Steph asks.

"Because he's pissing me off." I grumble. "Sorry I used you for that."

"Rory, can I tell you something?"

"I guess."

"Don't worry too much about what they're planning on doing for the initiation. Remember they also have to consider themselves and by that I mean they're not going to make you do anything that they don't plan on doing."

"OK. I won't." I tell her. "They've got a stripper coming to the room." I inform her.

"What? Are you sure?"

"Yeah I could hear Colin and Finn in the background talking about how she would be there within 15 minutes. Excuse me I'm going to go get my actual credit card back. Do you want to come back with me or can I use your room card?"

"Umm...yeah, let's go. There will be hell to pay if that's true."

"And I've got the perfect punishment if that's what they're doing."

"Oooo…like what?"

"Let's ruin their fun first and then I'll tell you what the plan is."

"Sounds good." Steph nods and we take off back to the hotel.

"Let's go." I tell her as we rush out the door. We get back to the hotel in 5 minutes flat. Steph slides the card into the lock and yanks it out as I open the door and look to see 3 guilty looking guys sitting in the living room.

"Hello boys." I smile smugly.

"Ace what are you doing here?"

"You know why I'm here, Logan. Give me your wallet."

"Why?"

"You know why, Logan. Just give it to me."

I stick out my hand and he reluctantly puts it in my hand and I open it up. I take my credit card out then remove the one he gave me and hand him his card and wallet back to him.

"Thank you." I gaze from Logan to Colin to Finn and back to Logan again. "You know Steph I think the boys are looking awfully guilty here, don't you?

"Yeah…I wonder why that is."

"So would any of you guys like to tell us why that is?"

All of them remain mute.

"Huh." Steph looks over at me. "Still nothing."

"So…what time is the stripper getting here?"

"What are you talking about, Ace?"

"Honey, I know how you think you can tell when I'm lying but honestly your poker face isn't any better."

Just then there was a knock on the door and we rush to open it before any of the guys can even get up. We see a black haired petite girl dressed in a red halter top and red miniskirt with thigh high leather boots standing there.

"Hello." Steph and I said in unison as we smile tightly.

"Hi." She looks at us with surprise. She gazes around. "I'm sorry. Do I have the right room?"

Steph quickly shakes her head. "Oh, I'm sure you've got the right room but they won't need your services today."

I hand her two 20's from my purse. "Thanks anyway." I smile at her then close the door. "Boys, boys. Did we learn nothing from the payback after the skit?"

"Darling now you know you said no strip clubs but nothing about no strippers." Finn reminds me.

I smirk. "Oh technicality. You know Steph it's not even noon yet. How many hours do you anticipate we're going to spend shopping?"

"Oh, I think a good 7 or 8."

"Good. I hope you boys brought comfortable shoes because you've now just earned yourselves a day of shopping with us. We need people to carry the bags."

Groans fill the room.

"Hey, it could be worse." Steph mentions.

"We could make you carry our purses too." I point out and smirk. "Get going."

"I blame you entirely for this, Finn." Colin grumbles as he gets up from his chair.

"Decide who you're going with, Finn." I tell him. "Because you're not getting out of this." I yank Logan out of his chair and towards the door. "Ready to go Steph?"

"Absolutely."

"Come on, boys. Daylight's burning and by the end of the day your feet might be too from pain." I smile brightly. That will teach them to lie to us.

"You're way too chipper about this, Ace." Logan notes.

I ignore him, though. "So, Steph, should we go back to Saks or should we head over to Madison Ave.?"

"Let's go over to Madison Avenue. There's a good 10 shops I want to go to over there and then on 57th St. there's Burberry and Chanel."

The guys proceed to whine as we push them out the door.

"Grow up." I scowl at them.

On the new leg of our trip our first stop was at Dolce and Gabbana.

"So who are you carrying bags for, Finn, me or Steph?"

"I somehow think you'll walk away with less bags than Steph will so you." He answers.

"OK." I nod as I thread my fingers with Logan's as we take off to the Ladies section. I start flipping through outfits.

"Rory…"

"I better not be about to hear a complaint come out of your mouth, Logan." I warn him as I take a look at the dresses.

"No, just a question."

"What?" I glance at myself in the mirror as I hold a teal-colored chiffon dress up to my frame.

"Why is it so important to have your card?"

"Why does it matter?"

"What's wrong with my card?"

"As far as I know, nothing. We're not married yet so I feel there's no reason to use your card. Besides, it's none of your business how much I spend on things." I reply bluntly.

He stares at me with confusion. "What? Are you mad at me?"

"Of course not, dear. Why would I be mad?" I grab a couple more dresses.

"Rory, I can't treat you any differently than any other new member with the LDB, OK? I'd get thrown out."

"Who the hell said I'm mad about that?" I snap as I release his hand and take off to the dressing room. "That just added fuel to the fire. I requested one thing, Logan." I shut the door to the dressing room and proceed to change into one of the dresses. "One thing and you couldn't even do it." I call to him through the door. He's sitting on the couch in the waiting area by the mirrors.

I swing the door open and march out wearing a knee length forest green rayon dress.

"You look beautiful." He comments as he watches me spin around in front of the wall of mirrors.

"Flattery will get you nowhere, Huntzberger."

"Rory…" He grabs my wrist and pulls me into his lap. "I'm sorry, OK? It was Finn's idea."

"Ahh…so you don't have a mind anymore?" I reply coldly. "By the way, you just blew our deal." I stomp away from him. I get back into the dressing room and remove the dress to put in the maybe pile when I see a dress being handed to me over the door. It's a plum colored silk organza mid-thigh length dress.

"What's this?" I ask.

"Try it on." He calls back. "I want to see what it looks like on you."

It is a very pretty dress. "Logan…"

"Ace, I know what size you wear. I've bought dresses for you before. Try it on please."

I sigh. There's no point in arguing with him. I pull it over my head and glance at myself in the mirror. It is beautiful. I come out to show him which of course leads to a huge grin on his face.

"Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. You look gorgeous, Ace."

"Thank you." I smile as I do a 360 turn in the mirror.

"If you don't plan on buying it, I'm buying it for you. It looks too good on you not to."

"Oh, you think so, huh?" I smirk as he pulls me back down into his lap.

"I know so." He replies as he kisses me. "By the way, you're right. I didn't have to stay. I should have left. I promise we won't do that again."

I contemplate for a moment then tell him. "OK, thank you." He releases me and I head back into the dressing room. I change into my last dress which is a black floral silk one that has ruching.

"What do you think?" I ask.

"I like it. It looks good. Just make sure you pick more than just black as the color of the majority of your clothes." He advises.

I frown. "The majority of my clothes aren't black, Logan."

"A good portion of them are."

I look him up and down. "You're one to talk." I make note of his nearly all black ensemble. The only thing that isn't is his shirt. My eyes light up. "In fact, we don't we shop for you while we're here?"

"Why?"

"You could use some color too."

"I'd rather shop for you."

"Yeah I figured you would say that." I smirk as I head back in to change. I come back out carrying the last two dresses I tried on.

"Really?" That's all you're getting?" Logan asks. "I thought you'd make this harder on me."

I smirk. "You do remember how Steph was saying there would be at least 10-12 shops, right? Figure at least 1 bag at every store."

"Oh, god." Logan groans and I laugh.

"Hey, look at it this way. Colin's all by himself and without a buddy to help him carry Steph's bags. You should feel sorry for him."

"I do." He smirks and envelopes me in his arms. "So tell me, Ace…"

"What Logan?"

"What do I have to do to get our deal reinstated?" He whispers in my ear.

"Not one word of complaining and I don't care if your feet are killing you. No complaining the whole entire shopping trip." I tell him.

"OK." He nods. "I'll have no problem doing that."

I frown. "Where did we lose Finn?" I break free from his grasp and glance around. "Did he bail on us?" We start to head to the register and Logan is ahead of me when I hear him laugh.

"What?" I join him then smirk at the image. There's Finn excessively flirting with the red-headed cashier.

"Nope, he didn't bail; he's just doing what he does best."

I clear my throat as I approach him.

"Rory, love!" Finn responds, his face is turning slightly red from embarrassment.

"Finn…I was wondering what happened to you."

"I was just waiting for you and Logan to finish trying on clothes."

"I somehow think your attention made it no further than the front door." I remark as I hand the cashier my dresses. "OK boys which one of you is carrying this bag?"

Logan was just a little bit quicker.

"Wow!" The red-headed cashier comments. "They're fighting over who get to carry your bags? That must be nice."

"Oh, they don't have a choice." I inform her. "They didn't want to listen to simple instructions." I emphasize simple to the guys. "Their punishment is carrying my bags on this shopping excursion."

The cashier giggles.

"Hi, I'm Rory Gilmore." I shake her hand. "And this is my fiancé Logan."

"Hi, I'm Kelly."

"It's nice to meet you, Kelly." My eyes nearly pop out of my head when I see the total. Now I know I don't have that much money.

Logan frowns. "What's the matter, Ace?"

I sheepishly grin at him and he smirks and pulls out his wallet. He pulls out my card, swipes in the machine and then hands it to me. "We underestimated the amount we'd be spending, didn't we?"

"Maybe."

"This is why I gave you this card; so you could buy whatever you wanted and not worry about spending too much. I don't care how much you spend. No matter what, I'm sure you're going to spend less than Steph anyway. That woman has no restraint when it comes to shopping."

I laugh. "Yeah, that's true. She's like a kid in a candy store."

Logan nods. "Exactly. Oh and Ace?"

"Yeah?"

"Sign the machine."

I sign and thank Kelly and tell her it was nice to meet her and she says the same. Kelly hands the bag to Logan and we start to walk out of the store when I notice Finn's not following.

"Finn…" I call to him in a sing-song voice. "Get Kelly's number and tell her you'll call her later. You need to come with us."

He gets her number and trails behind us out the door. He seems happy enough that he did get her number.

"Finn…do you ever think you'll settle down with someone?" I ask as we make our way down to Armani.

"I don't know, darling. Why?"

"Honestly you should consider it. Look at both of your best friends. Colin's been with Steph for well over a year and then of course you know the ultimate playboy is now engaged." I remind him. "I never imagined he'd give up the lifestyle but he did."

Logan frowns. "Never?"

"Well, I just figured that you'd find monogamy boring."

"Monogamy is boring." Finn answers.

"Monogamy is not boring, Finn." Logan disputes as he wraps his arm around my shoulders. "As long as you find the right woman." He informs him as he kisses me.

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**OK so I have a confession. I had typed all the way to Chapter 9. I'm just starting on 10 and I'm struggling just a little. When I hit writer's block, that's when I decided to write what I already knew and that would be the rehearsal dinner, the wedding and the honeymoon is what I'm working on right now. The only bad thing is it's chapter 9 and those start around chapter 18. I'm missing the 9 chapters in the middle. I'm working on it though. The goal is by next Wednesday that I'll have chapter 10 out. The next chapter is in Logan's POV and they're going to find where they want to have the wedding. I'll have to post links as to where they'll have it. As for what I put in when Logan said about how he'd be kicked out of the LDB, I realize that he's a past member and not an active member but still... Anyway, remember to review!**


	10. Location Scouting

**OK so I lied. This chapter wasn't released on Wednesday if you go by the clock but on my personal clock I'm still considering it Wednesday even if it is almost 1 in the morning. I did a real quick proofreading on this so if you see a lot of spelling errors or grammar errors my apologies but I've spent the last 6 hours typing this chapter and like I said it's 1 in the morning. Remember to review! I love them!**

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God, shopping is exhausting! That whole trip lasted like 8 hours and my feet feel like they're ready to fall off. I don't know how the hell we're going to go look at places for the wedding when we go out tomorrow. I guess I should count myself lucky because no matter how badly my body feels Colin's has to feel 10 times worse. When I saw him and Steph come back, I counted 32 bags between them. Rory's amount was more modest at 15. We did go to all 12 stores but she didn't average more than 1 bag per store except when we got to DKNY where she got 3.

We're all now congregating in Colin and Steph's room where I am stretched out on the couch and Colin and Finn are residing in the two recliners. Rory and Steph come back in from the bedroom after comparing notes on what they bought.

"So guys…did we learn a lesson today?" Rory asks.

"Yes." We all mumble.

"God you're horrible to shop with Steph." Colin groans. "Why the hell did you have to buy so many damn clothes?"

"Ask that again Colin and you won't be getting sex for the rest of this trip." She threatens.

The rest of us break out in quiet laughter. I glance at the clock. Wow! It's already 7:30. My feet hurt like hell but I must admit that the day seemed to go pretty fast. Thank God too.

"Do you guys want to get supper?" Colin asks.

"I don't think so." I shake my head. "I think we'll just go back to our room and order room service. Rory and I are spending tomorrow scouting wedding and reception locations." That is, if I can even walk.

"What are you three going to do?" Rory asks the other 3.

"I don't know yet." Steph answers.

"Well, for me, the night is still young." Finn informs us. "What I do tomorrow will be because of what I do tonight." He smirks. He reaches in his pocket and produces a wad of phone numbers.

"And which one of the 20 odd numbers that you got are you going to call?" Rory asks him.

"I'm thinking the first one I got."

"Really? Kelly?" I answer and I can tell everyone, including my fiancée, is surprised that I remember her name. "What?"

"You know the names of all the women he got numbers from?" Colin asks.

"No I remember the first 3 mainly because Rory felt the need to introduce us to them. She gave up after 3." I explain.

"Smart girl." Steph comments. "There's no way in hell you'd ever be able to keep them all straight."

"That's what I realized." Rory answers.

I sigh as I sit up. "OK come on Ace. You owe me a foot massage and a striptease." I stand up and start to pull her to the door.

"Hey I never agreed to the foot massage." Rory reminds me.

"See you guys later." I tell them.

"Bye guys." Rory tells them.

We hear various goodbyes as we head back to our room. We walk in the door and see all 15 bags sitting scattered in the living room. We could have had them dropped off by one of the bellmen but we just decided that we'd do it before we stopped in Colin and Steph's room.

"I don't remember the last time I bought so much stuff." She admits to me. "I don't think I ever have in a single trip."

"Is this your way of telling me that you're not going to be doing any shopping when we get to Palo Alto?"

Rory's giving me this look like I must be out of my mind crazy to suggest such a thing.

I start to laugh. "So that's a no?"

"Good God no."

I pretty much figured that one shopping trip would last her awhile. I pity Colin because I have no doubt that Steph will drag him out and do more shopping tomorrow. He looked like he was about ready to die from today.

"Are you hungry?" Rory asks, breaking me out of my trance.

"Yeah. Are you?" I plop down on the bed.

"I'm famished. What sounds good?" She takes a seat next to me, grabs my feet and puts them on her lap.

I stare at her curiously. "What are you doing?"

"I'm being a nice fiancée." She advises as she starts to give me the best foot massage I've ever had. "So what kind of food sounds good?"

I'm enjoying this foot massage to no end. "I'm thinking Chinese."

"Yeah, Chinese does sound excellent right about now. Why don't you get out your cell phone and order?"

I pull my cell phone out of my pocket and hit #9 on the speed dial. I still do have a few restaurants on my speed dial from when I lived in Manhattan. I order spring rolls, sweet and sour pork, kung pao chicken, fried rice and crab rangoon. I somehow think we'll be eating leftovers tomorrow.

"So how long?" She asks. She's still massaging my feet. I'm telling you; I got damn lucky with having Rory as my fiancée.

"Around half an hour." I tell her. She stops rubbing my feet then. I have to admit; my feet are feeling 10 times better. "Thank you, Ace." I move my feet off of her lap and then lean over and kiss her. "I appreciate it."

"You're welcome." She kicks her shoes off and props her feet onto my lap. "My turn." She declares.

"Seriously?" I'm terrible at giving foot massages and she knows it. There's only been one time that I've given her one and I think she was in more pain afterward than when I started.

Rory smirks. "No, I'm kidding." She put her feet on the floor. "No, actually what I'm going to go do is soak in the bathtub." She stands up and heads into the bathroom. I hear the water start to run and she comes back into the bedroom to get her pajamas I'm assuming.

"I hope you're planning on wearing one of those nightgowns I bought you at La Perla." I grin at her and she smirks back at me. Let me tell you, Finn had a field day in La Perla. We literally had to push him out of the store. That was the place that he got the most amount of phone numbers from what he tells me. He claims that at least one of them was an assistant manager's. I haven't told Rory this just yet but last night after I put her to bed and Finn had went back to his room, Colin and I made a bet as to when Finn would finally settle down with someone. I said within the next year but Colin thinks it's going to be longer than that. Now, after hearing the conversation from this afternoon, I'm thinking that Colin may be right. I hope he's not though. "You still owe me a dance."

"You're really not going to forget that, are you Huntzberger?" She sighs but I see her carrying a burgundy nightgown into the bathroom with her. It's one I bought her. It's actually one of a few I bought her. It still amazes me just how timid she is when she's in lingerie even though she knows that it's only me that sees her in it. I must admit that I had some fun picking out what she should try on. Granted we only bought a fraction of what she tried on but, to me, getting her to agree to buy even 1 piece was a victory.

"Not on your life, Ace." I answer. "Why did you suggest it if you're not planning on following through on it?"

"To get Finn off the subject." She answers and then adds. "I told you I would do it though and I never go back on my word. You know that." She peeks her head out of the bathroom. "Let me know when the food gets here." She then closes the door.

I flip the TV on. There's virtually nothing on. I settle for Sportscenter for the time being. If I wasn't waiting for the food, I'd honestly consider joining Rory in the bathtub. It's been awhile since we've taken a bath together. It's a rarity but I do enjoy it when we do.

Twenty minutes later, there's a knock on the door and I spring up from the bed to answer it. I grab my wallet from my back pocket and look in the peephole before I open the door. Yep, it's the delivery guy. After I pay for the food and tip the guy, I close the door and set the food on the breakfast bar. I wander into the bedroom and knock on the bathroom door. I stick my head in.

"Hey, food's here." I tell her.

"OK." She nods. "I'll be out in a minute."

"What do you want to drink?"

"Coke is fine."

"OK." I nod and close the door. I start setting all of the cartons out when Rory makes her entrance. She's wearing that burgundy nightgown and she's thrown her hair up into a twist. She looks like she's completely relaxed.

"So how do you feel?" I ask as I grab a Coke from the fridge for her.

"Rejuvenated." She admits with a smile.

"Good. I'm glad." I tell her as I set the Coke down in front of her and give her a paper plate. "What time do you want to leave tomorrow?"

She's thinking as I head back to the bar and grab my scotch. I take a seat next to her at the table. "I'm not sure. How about 10ish? I don't want to go too early."

"That'll be good." I grab a paper plate for myself.

Rory's looking over all the food and groans. "Good God, Logan. Why did you order so much?"

"Yeah I know. I realized that after I ordered. We'll just have leftovers tomorrow." I tell her as I grab some of the kung pao chicken. "What areas are you thinking of looking at?"

"City wise?"

I nod.

"I was thinking we'd probably stick to Manhattan or Brooklyn. I don't want to go any further than that. Where do you think we should have the guests stay?"

"I'm liking here personally."

"I am too. I think the Plaza is a beautiful hotel. We should talk to the hotel manager about this before we leave for California." She says as she has some of the sweet and sour pork.

"OK. We'll make a note of that."

"Very good food." She grins. "I'm seriously going to miss New York food."

"I told you to quit doing that. It's not as if we're not going to be back here often. The Chinese food in California isn't bad." I reveal as I drink my scotch.

"No, you're right. I'm sure California has excellent food."

"Just keep your mind open, OK?"

She nods. "I will. I promise."

We spend the rest of the meal eating in a comfortable silence. As expected we still have a fair amount of food left over. I am half tempted to offer it to the other 3 but I don't. Mainly because I now have a distraction in front of me…and she's now showing me just how pretty those long legs of hers are. When given enough coaxing…or enough alcohol Rory can do a hell of a striptease. What's surprising is that it didn't take either one to get her to do it this time. She does an amazing job and I greatly reward her after.

We go to bed around 11:30 and get up at just after 8 o'clock. Rory wants to leave at 10 and I know she would greatly appreciate us sticking to the schedule for once. We almost never do and we're always running late. A lot of the time it's because of me but every once in awhile it is because of her. I know she has a lot of ground she wants to cover today. I get done taking my shower and change. When I come out, Rory's sitting at the breakfast bar typing at a ridiculous speed and jotting down notes on a notepad. I creep closer and she's researching churches and reception halls. There's 5 churches she has down that she wants to see but right now I'm only seeing one place mentioned for the reception.

"Is your heart that set on the Grand Prospect Hall?" I ask her as I lean over her shoulder and glance between the notepad and her laptop.

"I'm trying to find more places but I have very high expectations when it comes to places for the reception."

"Like what?"

"Like, first of all, it needs to be within 15 minutes of the church. It also needs to a huge ballroom so it can accommodate at least 300 people. And finally it's got to be beautiful."

"Oh, well that should be easy enough to find." I tease her and she frowns.

"Do not mock me Huntzberger. This is our wedding. I want it to be perfect."

"It will be Ace." I wrap my arms around her waist. "It's getting late. Aren't you going to go take a shower?"

"Ooo…Chelsea Piers. That would be really pretty." I see her write that on her list.

"Rory…"

"I heard you, Logan. I'm going. I see it's 9:15. I'm just running behind." She sets her notepad down beside her laptop and sprints into the bathroom. I hear the water start to run so I take a seat on the barstool and decide to research more places for us to visit for the reception. It's definitely not easy to meet Rory's criteria. I did find one though. I think she'll really like it. The Gotham Hall looks really amazing from what I can tell with the pictures that the website shows.

Rory comes back out wearing one of the dresses that she tried on yesterday. I glance at the time. It's quarter to 10.

"What are you doing?" She asks as she sits on the barstool next to me.

"I was looking for more places that we could hold the reception." I explain as I finish writing down the Gotham Hall's address on her notepad.

"Did you find any?"

"Yeah, I found one." I review her list. "So it looks like we have 5 churches and 4 places for reception to visit then."

"Looks like it."

"You know what would be really shocking?"

"What's that?"

"If instead of leaving on time or leaving late if we actually left early once." I grin at her.

"This will go down in the record books for us." She grins back as she grabs her purse from the couch.

We leave the hotel just before 10 and the first church we go to the Central Presbyterian Church. It's the closest one to the hotel so we just walk there and it takes about 7 or 8 minutes. It looks huge from the outside. We spend about 15 minutes meeting with the minister as we get taken on a tour of the church. As soon as we leave, I see Rory making notes on her notepad.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"Just making notes of what I thought of the place." She explains.

"Care to share them with me?"

"I will; once we get back to the room."

The next one we see if the All Souls Church. It's a pretty historic one…it's been open since 1819. It is big too. It's a good thing considering there will probably be at least 250 people coming just from my side for this wedding. The way it sounds though Rory's not going to be too far behind with her invite list.

Grace Church is next on her list and I must admit this one is probably my favorite so far. It looks amazing from the outside. After we get the tour inside, I'm sold. This is where I want the wedding to be held and I tell that to Rory as soon as we get back outside.

"I still have like 2 more places that I wanted to look at."

"We still can but you know where my vote is going on this."

"I know. I really really want to see the next place though."

"Which one is it?"

"It's Saint Paul's Chapel. It's like straight down the road a couple miles."

We decide it's now time to start taking a cab where we're going. Especially since if we're going to go visit Chelsea Piers later.

We arrive outside Saint Paul's Chapel ten minutes later. Ten minutes. It took ten minutes to go two miles. There's terrible traffic right now. I stare at Rory who's staring at the building in awe. I'm having a hard time telling if she's still breathing.

"Ace…you ok?" I put my hand on the back of her neck and start to rub it.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Do you know the story behind this chapel?"

"What do you mean?"

"It's the only church that is near ground zero that escaped having any physical damage done to it. There were buildings right across the street from the World Trade Center that collapsed."

"That's incredible." I admit as we walk inside. I keep watching Rory as we tour and I can tell she's sold on this place. I can't deny that I like the chapel but I really like the Grace church more.

We come out about 15 minutes later after meeting with the minister and she declares to me that she wants to get married here. Now we have an issue. I look at my watch and see that it's around 12:30. We decide to grab lunch and review. We conclude that there's no need to see the last place she wanted to go to see since we know which churches we like. This should be interesting how we decide, though. We try to reach this amicably however it's tending to get a little hard. Rory's so sold on the chapel.

"Come on, Logan." She tries to coax me. "Don't you want to get married in someplace historical?"

"Are you saying that the Grace church doesn't have that?"

"It doesn't have the history that the chapel does, no. It was built over 240 years ago and the fact that it withstood the destruction known as 9/11 means something."

I sigh. OK so she's winning this. It would be amazing to get married there. "How about we take a look at reception halls then decide?" I try to compromise.

"OK." She nods. "That's fair. We're not done so this conversation is still premature."

"Right."

We grab a quick lunch then head to Chelsea Piers. We take a look at the Lighthouse and also Pier 60. Both are nice but I don't think either of us are completely sold just yet. We take a cab from there to the Grand Prospect Hall in Brooklyn. It is a very beautiful place. I can see why Rory likes it. It's got the huge ballroom to fit everyone in and it is just a short distance from Manhattan. We ride back to Manhattan to take a look at the last place which is the Gotham Hall. As soon as we enter the main ballroom, I see the same reaction on Rory's face as I did when we were at the chapel. I think I have her sold on this place.

"I love it." She murmurs and glances over at me. "What do you think?"

"I think it's amazing." I smile as I give her a quick kiss. We walk around the room taking in the huge chandelier in the middle of the room and the large columns that are scattered throughout. It takes me about half an hour before I can pry Rory away. I honestly think she fell in love with the place.

By the time we get back to our room it's almost 5. All in all we have had a very productive day. We crash on the couch and Rory puts her legs across my lap.

"OK so about how we compromise?" She suggests.

"OK. Let's hear it."

"How about we have the wedding at Saint Paul's Chapel and the reception at the Gotham Hall?"

I think for a moment. I can live with that. I would have really liked that to have had the wedding in the Grace Church but as long as we have the reception at the Gotham Hall I'll be happy. I really did like the Gotham Hall as much as Rory did. It's enormous and has lots of character to it…kind of like us.

"Yeah. OK. That sounds good."

Her eyes light up. I think she thought I would say no because we're not using the Grace Church. "Really?"

"Yeah. I think it's great. And you're right. It would be amazing to get married in the chapel too. It does have an impressive history."

She smiles. "Thank you, Logan."

"You're welcome Ace." I lean over and give her a quick kiss.

"You just wait and see. Our wedding is going to spectacular." She declares.

"I have absolutely no doubt about that at all, Ace." I grin as I kiss her again.

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**OK so there's chapter 10. A few notes about this. I have read different information about whether or not St. Paul's Chapel is actually open and having services. I've read that they are and then one of the reviewers told me that she didn't think they were. For the sake of the story they are. Also I literally did research and took a look at the websites on all of these churches and of the reception places. I really did fall in love with the Gotham Hall. It's so pretty. Anyway, remember to review. I'm still going to try my hardest to get Chapter 11 out by next Wednesday. Oh, also I'm taking opinions of what Rory and Logan's Wedding Song should be. I already have it written as one thing but depending on what people come up with I might change it. Let me know what you think would be a good wedding song for them to have.**


	11. You're offering me a job?

**So I released this last night and replaced the chapter but the alert never came to me so I didn't think it went to any of you. I am sorry that it took this long to release it. I want to thank all of you for your help on this chapter. Special thanks to Meg-Breanne who came up with the suggestion about having Logan work at Twitter but I then decided to just make up a name. I need to thank my 2 cousins for their help in that process. It was A LOT harder than I thought it would be. Overall I think the chapter turned out rather well. Remember to review! I love them! As for the name of the company, nothing's set in stone yet. I may still change that name. Hope you like it!**

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OK so I have to say that so far this trip has been a very productive one. I mean, we've got the church, the reception hall, and the hotel all reserved for the weekend of October 20th. That's the date that we decided on. October 20th. I then realize that it is now just under 5 months away and I start to mentally panic. God, there is still so much to do and not enough time to do it all in. I mean, the dresses, the tuxes, the invites, the flowers. Oh God and telling Logan's parents! God, do we really have to tell them? OK, so that's stupid. I mean, I know we have to tell them but I'm hoping we can delay it for as long as humanly possible. The only part that makes me even remotely happy about joining their family is that I'll have Honor for my sister-in-law. She and her husband are the only reasonable people in that family. Like I mentioned earlier, Mitchum and I can tolerate each other. Even though I still don't agree with how he treated his son or the mind tricks he played with me but frankly with us about to move 2500 miles away, it's no longer a huge concern to me. The one that is a concern is Shira.

We arrive at the JFK airport shortly after noon. The flight leaves in an hour and we're all booked for 1st class. Finn looks hung over and like he's about ready to pass out. Hopefully he waits until after we board before he actually does. Apparently he's been having some fun with the women he got all the numbers from. Colin and Stephanie are in the middle of a spat due to the fact that Steph had to buy more luggage because of all the clothes she bought on this trip. While Logan and I were out location scouting, Steph took Colin on another shopping trip and she bought another 10 bags worth of stuff…all for him. After we found that out, Logan and I spent the next 15 minutes hysterically laughing.

I take a seat in one of the chairs by the Palo Alto exit and watch Logan curiously as he stands and gazes around like he's searching for something.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"I'm looking for your other surprise." He explains and I leap to my feet.

"What surprise?"

I see him wave then tell me. "This one."

I see Honor come through the crowd of bustling people as she has people following her and carrying her luggage. "Rory!"

My eyes grow wide. "Honor!" She gives me a huge hug. "Hey! What are you doing here?"

"Didn't Logan tell you? I'm flying with you to Palo Alto."

"Really? That's great." I smile at her and narrow my eyes at my fiancé. "No actually Logan didn't mention that." I give him a glare.

"Why didn't you tell her I was coming?" Honor asks him.

"I wanted it to be a surprise." He tries to explain. " You see Ace, I've found the easiest way to give you a surprise is to not tell you about it. I've learned a lesson with this road trip and the location."

"Hey Finn, Colin, Steph." Honor greets them cordially.

Colin and Steph greet her in unison and Finn is now all of a sudden wide awake.

"Honor, darling. How are you? Have you left your husband yet and decided to come back to me?" He jokes and I stare at them in confusion. That was strictly a joke, right? Honor and Finn were never together, were they?

"In your dreams, Finn."

I feel Logan grab my hand and pull me down into the seat next to him. Nobody is volunteering if there's truth to what Finn said or not.

"What's wrong?" Logan whispers to me.

"Nothing."

"Rory, what is it?"

"Nothing's wrong, Logan, I was just curious if Finn was just joking or not. Did he and Honor…"

Logan looks at his friends and his sister who is now hearing Colin tell a story of what a horrible shopping partner Steph is. He leans in and whispers in my ear that it's true. It had happened like 5 years ago before Honor had even met her husband. They were all at some college party. Honor had just broken up with her latest boyfriend because she found out he had cheated on her. Everyone was playing drinking games but Finn and Honor were still playing after everyone else had quit.

It happened one time. They both agreed that they wouldn't do it again. Finn liked being a playboy and Honor liked commitment. They have been known to joke about it on occasion but never serious on following through on anything more.

Wow! I just didn't think of the two of them ever really hooking up. Then again, I guess I could see it. I mean, Honor was upset about her ex-boyfriend and revenge sex is the best kind; or so I hear. I never have had the opportunity. OK so that's a lie; I had the opportunity to with Jess but honestly the revenge kiss was enough for me.

The page comes on just then about how passengers are now able to board the flight to Palo Alto. We all get up from our seats and make our way to the gate.

"So where's Josh?" I ask her as we board the plane.

"Oh, he's stuck at work and won't be able to make it." She explains.

"Oh, that's too bad." I frown.

All six of us are getting in our seats. Logan, me, and Honor are in one row and Colin, Steph, and Finn are in the row in front of us.

"OK, so let me see it." Honor asks as she glances down at my left hand. I go ahead and show her the ring. "Wow! That's gorgeous." She grins at me.

"Thank you. Yeah, Logan does have pretty good taste when it comes to jewelry."

"Yeah, he does. Especially when he's smart and decides to listen to his sister's advice."

Steph turns around and looks at us. "You took your sister with you when you went ring shopping for Rory?"

"I did not!" Logan argues. "And Honor you did not pick that ring out. I went by myself."

"I told you what kind to get."

"Yes, you did. I got a platinum ring just like you suggested but everything else I came up with all by myself."

"Wow!" I comment. "You're awfully defensive, Huntzberger."

"I'm just teasing you, Logan. Relax."

I crack a smile. Their banter has always been funny to watch.

"So have you started any of the planning?"

"Are you kidding?" Colin stifles a laugh. "They have like half the wedding planned already."

Honor's eyes grow wide in shock. "Are you serious?"

"No, Colin is greatly exaggerating." I protest. "Yes we got the date set and got our locations set for the wedding but other stuff still needs to be done."

"So where did you have in mind?"

"Well, we decided it will be in New York." Logan starts. "Rory was having a little bit of indecision when it came to location."

"There was a brief moment when I considered having it in Stars Hollow."

"So happy you decided not to have it there, love." Finn chimes in. "You grew up in a bizarre town."

"Bizarre how?"

Colin, Finn, and Steph then clue Honor in on what they got to witness while they were in town. Honor looks shocked by what they're telling her.

"Wow! It sounds like you grew up in a pretty interesting place, Rory."

"You don't know the half of it, Honor." I reply.

"And of course there was that even briefer moment when she wanted to have the wedding in Florida."

"You make it sound like I'm the only one who has ever suggested having the wedding at Cinderella's castle at Walt Disney World."

"Oooo…that would have been so cute." Honor gushes.

"See Logan, your sister agrees with me and Steph."

Logan groans in response and I grin.

"So when is it?"

"October 20th." I tell her.

"Wow! That's soon."

"I know." I nod. "That started to hit me just now."

I think Logan can sense that I'm starting to panic even though I try not to let my voice reflect it.

"Ace, we'll get everything done in time, I promise." He reaches over, grabs my hand and kisses it.

"Why is it so soon?" Honor asks.

"He picked the month and I picked the day." I shrug.

"Where's it being held?"

"Saint Paul's Chapel for the ceremony which was Rory's choice." Logan tells her.

"Gotham Hall for the reception which Logan chose." I reply.

"And the Plaza Hotel."

"Have you thought about the Honeymoon locales?"

"That's definitely going to be someplace warm." I tell her adamantly. "Especially since he gets no input on the location."

"Really?" Honor raises a curious eyebrow. "Why's that?"

"Because he's choosing where we're going for the 2nd week."

"Logan how are you able to take a 2 week honeymoon at a job you haven't even started at yet?" Honor asks and I hold in a laugh. That's actually a very good question. One I hadn't considered until now.

"I'll make it work."

"Of course you will." I respond. "Actually the honeymoon is the first week and the second week is the Life and Death Brigade initiation they want to do."

"You're joining the LDB?" Her eyes grow wide.

I nod.

"Good God why would you want to?" She exclaims and Logan scowls.

"Honor we don't need your opinion."

"Shut up, Logan. I want to hear from Rory that you're not forcing her to do it."

I quickly shake my head. "No, no he's not. It's just an honorary title because of my family and stuff. Apparently my great-grandma and my grandpa were both members."

"Your great-grandma was?"

"Yeah, amazingly. That woman was full of surprises. Logan found out that she was one of the first women admitted into the group."

The pilot comes over the PA system asking everyone to buckle their seatbelts as we are about to take off. The six and a half hour flight tends to go pretty fast. We spent it talking about the wedding, the house that Logan has found for us to rent, his new job and my job search.

"So when are you going to let us see where you're going to be working?" I ask him.

"Tomorrow. I figured that all we would be doing tonight is getting settled into the hotel."

"Sounds good."

"You haven't told us much about this job, Logan." Colin reminds him. "What is it that you're going to be doing?"

I realize that he hasn't even told me much about the job. Just about how he was made a full partner.

"Well, I met with a couple of guys at this company called Excursion Media."

"Excursion?" I ask.

"Yeah, it's in the very early stages. There's huge plans including a blog, maybe an online magazine and a virtual game."

"That's great, Logan." Steph chimes in.

"So how did you get them sold on you, Logan?" Finn asks. "Did you tell them about all of your excursions?"

"Well some." Logan admits. "I partially think that's what helped me get the job. So right now my job besides being a partner will be the vice president over multimedia."

"That's incredible, Logan." I murmur.

"Thank you Ace. I'm glad you think so."

The plane gets into Palo Alto shortly after 3:30. I must admit California is beautiful. You can see the mountains off in the distance. From the reading I did, there are a lot of parks around the area too. I somehow think that Logan is going to sweet talk me into doing some exercise. I have to be careful because he can be very persuasive and may eventually win. Regardless I'm pretty sure that we will be spending a lot of our time outside. It's going to be strange living in a place that doesn't have a lot of snow. It may be nice though. I mean, the high in the winter averages in the 50's. Huge difference from Connecticut.

"So what do you say?" Logan asks as we make our way to the luggage area. "Do you want to just order some food and hang out in the hotel room?"

"Fine by me as long as that's what everyone wants to do." I tell him.

Everyone is sounding like doing anything else would require too much energy. We all get together in my and Logan's room at the 4 seasons hotel and order pizza and breadsticks. It's not bad however I'm still bias about the pizza that I've had in the Northeast. We really don't do anything except eat, drink, and have Logan fill us in on the aspects he did know about his job and what exactly the VP over multimedia entailed. He sounds so excited about it and honestly that makes me really happy. It's giving me hope as far as my job hunt goes. I hope I hear from the Chronicle or the Bay Guardian soon. The not knowing is killing me!

We all congregate together in the hotel lobby at 10:30 the next morning. Everyone looks well rested; well, except for Finn. I'm not sure I want to know why he looks like he didn't sleep at all.

It takes us about around 25 minutes to get to the building where Logan is going to be working. My first thought when I see it is WOW! It's a 4 story building that is glass all the way around. Everywhere you look there's glass. Granted I'm sure there are some companies that have bigger, fancier buildings but quite frankly, this one is still in the start-up stages from what I hear and they're still doing fairly well.

"So do you have employees yet?" Honor asks as we get out of the rental SUV.

"Not just yet. Interviews will start early next week." Logan explains. "The other partners do want me to here to assist with the hiring of some of the higher up people."

"So do you get to hire the people that will be working in your area?" Steph asks.

"Yeah." He nods. "It will be great to be able to pick my team. I had doubts about whether or not they would let me."

"Well, I think they trust you enough to hire people that would work well with the company." I tell him.

We arrive at the front doors and get buzzed into the building. As soon as we walk in, there are a couple of gentlemen waiting for us. One is, I would say in his mid-thirties, tall and has light brown hair while the other is around Logan's age, about my height, and has black hair.

"Logan…it's great to see you again." The older gentleman is the first to shake his hand.

"It's great to see you too Scott. Hi Mark." He then shakes the younger guy's hand.

"Nice to see you, Logan."

"Well, I'd like to introduce to some people. Mark, Scott, these are my friends, Stephanie, Finn, and Colin." They greet each other cordially. "This is my sister Honor." Honor shakes their hands and smiles. "And this is my fiancée Rory Gilmore."

I extend my hand to each of them and greet them.

"Everyone, this is Scott Roberts who is the CEO of the company and Mark Fowler who is the VP over finance."

"It's very nice to meet all of you." Scott acknowledges everyone but then says, "Ahh…Miss Gilmore," My face goes expressionless. "It's a pleasure to meet you. It's nice to put a face with a name. Logan has talked a lot about you in the short time I've known him."

"You've been talking about me?" I tease him.

"Of course I have."

"Please tell me it was all good things."

"Nothing but." Scott confirms. "In fact when I asked him in his interview what inspires him, he told me you did."

My eyes grow wide at the comment. "Me? Really?" I shoot Logan a look. He just grins.

"Of course, Ace. You've always inspired me."

"Well, thank you." I remark. I'm flattered by the compliment but the thought of me being mentioned anywhere in Logan's interview process is still surprising.

"Why don't we take you on a tour so all of you can see the building and the grounds?" Mark suggests and we all nod.

It's not a long tour. Right now it's pretty much a clean slate as far as work space goes, but there are several areas that are already designated like the offices, break rooms, gym, and bathrooms. We're all asking questions. They plan to start with a small staff around 50 people. They eventually want to get around 250 total.

Logan's office is on the 4th floor along with Mark and Scott's offices. Scott and Logan are in Scott's office signing some documents and we're all in Logan's office discussing what we will be spending the rest of the day doing. The next stop is the house that Logan got for us to rent. After that, Logan and I are going furniture shopping. Everyone else's plans range from shopping(that would be Steph's response) to groan(that was Colin's response to Steph stating her plans) to drinking(Finn's response no less) to heading to the spa(that would be Honor). A minute later, Logan comes in with Scott. He has the check in his hand and he's pulling out his wallet so he can put it in it.

"Ready to go see the house?" Logan asks.

"Can't wait." I grin as we all make our way out of Logan's office. Everyone is out of the office except for me and Logan.

"Miss Gilmore?"

I turn around and see it was Scott that called my name. "Yes, sir?"

"No need to be so formal, Miss Gilmore. You can call me Scott."

I smile. "Thank you, Scott."

"Could I talk to you for just a moment?"

I look at Logan who squeezes my hand. "We'll go wait in the lobby by the front doors." He gives me a quick kiss then heads out of the room with Mark. It's just me and Scott and it's honestly making me a little nervous.

"So how do you like California?" He surprises me with this question.

"I like it." I admit. "It's quite a change from Connecticut and New York but I like it."

"That's excellent to hear. So Miss Gilmore…"

I stop him though. "Now if I can call you Scott, you can call me Rory."

He smiles. "OK, Rory, I hear you're an exceptional writer."

I blush. "Logan is really just being bias."

"I disagree." He tells me. "Now, I won't say that he hasn't been praising you to no end because he has but after he gave me the chance to read some of your work, I happen to wholeheartedly agree with him."

"You…you've read some of my work?" The surprises just keep coming.

"Yes, I have."

"Which piece did he give you to read?"

"Well, he gave me a few to read however I was really impressed with the one that you wrote about the jump."

The jump. Of course he would include that one. "It was a very well written piece." He adds.

"Logan helped me write it." I tell him.

"Actually, Logan says he helped you gain access to the group but all of the writing is pure you. He's given me background on your writing tenure and the positions you've held and I must say you would make an excellent addition to the company."

My eyes grow wide. "Are you offering me a job?"

"Yes, I am."

I can't believe my ears. I look at the way I'm dressed. Far too casual for an actual job interview. "Don't you want to interview me for it? You know, when I'm dressed more appropriately and I've been able to prepare a little more?"

Scott shakes his head. "I don't need to, Rory. Now Logan tells me that you're going to be applying for newspaper positions but I would like you keep my job offer in mind. It will still be several months down the road. We want to get the majority of the staff hired and take some time before launching the online magazine."

"What would the position be?"

"The Editor-in Chief."

"The…Editor-in-Chief?" I repeat.

He nods. "Logan mentioned how you took over the editor position at the Yale Daily News and did a fantastic job at it. He also mentioned how there was a night before you became the editor that the paper didn't almost go out until you rallied everyone together and got the paper out."

I smile at the memory. "Yeah, he helped me a little there too though."

"But see he never mentioned that. The only thing he remembers is how when it got to crunch time, you took charge and got everyone working together to get the paper out."

"Yeah, I guess I did."

"So, anyway, I would like to offer you the official editor-in-chief position for the online magazine. " He hands me an envelope. "Here is some information about what the magazine would be about and your job, the pay, etc."

"Thank you."

"I want you to strongly consider my offer. We would be very lucky to have you."

"Thank you. I will definitely consider it." And I will. It is a tempting offer. The only one I've gotten so far other than the offer I received at the ProJo that I turned down.

"Well, I've kept you long enough. I'm sure Logan is wondering where you're at."

"Yeah, he probably is." I hesitate for a second then ask him. "Was he aware of the offer you were making me?"

"Yes he was aware that I was looking for the magazine but I did not disclose to him the position or the pay. I figured I'd let you disclose that to him yourself."

I grin. "Thanks."

"Not a problem." He guides me out of the office. We ride down in the elevator together and when we get to the lobby, I see only Logan waiting for me.

"Hey." I look around the barren area. "Where did everybody go?"

"They went to the get the SUV. They should be pulling up here momentarily." Logan explains. "Are you ready to go?"

"Whenever you are."

Logan and Scott finish talking about business and Logan tells him that he'll see him in a couple weeks.

"OK." Scott nods and then smiles at me. "It's been a pleasure to meet you, Rory."

"You too Scott."

"Please let me know what you decide, OK?"

I nod. "I will. Thank you again."

Logan and I leave and are waiting for the SUV to park in front of the building.

"Decide on what?" Logan asks as he glances over at me.

I give him a knowing smile. "Like you don't know."

"What?" He's not the best actor when it comes to the innocent, nonchalant stuff.

"Logan, you knew he offered me a job. Why are you acting like you don't know?"

"Yeah I knew he was going to more than likely offer but he never said what position."

The SUV pulls up and parks and Finn gets in back so Logan can drive. He's the only one who knows where this house is located.

"I'll tell you later." I tease him.

"Why not now?"

"Because I want to see how well you handle surprises." I smirk.

Logan pouts and I laugh.

"What? I'm just perfecting your look when it comes to surprises." He tells me.

"I don't look like that."

"Yes, you do."

"Come on kids!" Finn sticks his head out the window. "Let's go!"

We laugh and get into the SUV. It's about a 15 minute drive. The house is a pretty basic 2 level white ranch house. We all get out and gaze at it.

"What do you think, Ace?"

"I think it's pretty." I confess.

"When I look at the house to me I think it pretty much means we've grown up, doesn't it?"

I nod.

"What do you see when you look at it?"

"The future." I grin and then kiss him. "I see our future."

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**OK, so I hope you liked it. Anyway, I've now decided that I'm not committing to a specific deadline as far as getting the chapters done. I keep missing them anyway. Granted not by much but I am. The next chapter is we'll be in Logan's POV and have them finishing up at the house and heading home for the dinners. (The Gilmores to talk about the inheritance and The Huntzbergers to break the engagement news). Good fun! Do you want both dinners in one chapter or do you want me to split it into 2? Just let me know! Anyway, I still promise to get these chapters out as soon as I can and in about a little over 2 weeks I'll be going on vacation and I'll have a few days before I leave that I can make sure to get more out. Please review! I love them. I didn't say it earlier thanks for all the reviews again for the last chapter! **


	12. You don't scare me

**OK so it's here. I finally got the chapter done. Sorry it took so long. The main focus of course is on the drinks at the Huntzbergers' house. I decided I'd tell this chapter from Logan's POV and then of course the dinner will be from Rory's. Thanks for the reviews on the last chapter. I really love reading them! I'm so surprised everyone wanted her to take the job. Originally I wasn't going to have her take it but I've having second thoughts about it. Nothing is decided yet. They talk about it in this chapter though. **

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Our future. I like the sound of that. It makes it feel more real. Not that it wasn't before but showing everyone where I'm going to be working and now with going to see the house, it's all coming together.

"Come on." I grab Rory's hand and lead her up the steps. Everyone else is trailing behind us. I open the door and say hello.

"Hi Logan." The owner of the house, Mariah, is coming down the stairs. I actually met her through Scott. She's his sister in law. She's a very nice lady. I'd say she's about in her early 40's, has short blonde hair and about 5'4".

"Hi Mariah." I shake her hand. "How are you?"

"Good. How are you?"

"I'm good. I just got done showing everyone where I'll be working."

"That's great."

I introduce everyone and Mariah gives us a tour of the house. There's 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. The living room and kitchen are decently sized. The guest bedrooms are exactly the same size and the master bedroom has a good sized bathroom with it.

The last place that Mariah takes us is the backyard. We exit through the deck door in the kitchen and gather on the deck. It's a pretty big deck and an even bigger yard. The avocado tree is hard to miss. It's a good thing that Rory likes guacamole because I have a feeling we'll be eating a lot of it.

"So what do you think, Ace?" We're alone in the master bedroom upstairs. Everyone else is downstairs waiting for us.

"I like it." She tells me. "It's a good size. It's not too big which is good. We don't need anything too huge. I mean it just the two of us."

I nod. "Right."

"Good job, Huntzberger."

"Thank you Ace." I give her a quick kiss.

"Is the lease going to be for a year?"

"Yeah it is but I told her that we may only be here for six months."

Rory frowns. "What did she say?"

"Well she was fine with it when I told her that I was paying her the full year upfront." I grin.

We head downstairs and everyone is gathering around the island in the kitchen talking. After we talk to Mariah and sign the lease, I get the keys for the house. Rory and I decide that we're going to wait to go furniture shopping. We have so much stuff between the two of us that we'll bring what we have and then we can go shopping for anything else that we need.

After we get done at the house we head back to the hotel. Steph runs to go change for shopping. Colin's still refusing to go until she mentioned how she'll be shopping for lingerie. He all of a sudden decides to pick up his pace. I see her smirk. She knew that was all it would take. Finn decides to head to the bar in the hotel and Honor makes her way to the spa.

My future bride and I ride back up to our room in silence. I glance down at my watch and see it's just after 3. My first thought is that we need to order room service as soon as we get in the room because I'm starving! Rory has to be by now too.

She opens the door and tosses her purse on the desk. I see the envelope that Scott gave her sticking out of the top.

"Are you going to read that?" I ask her as I eye the envelope.

"I was waiting until we got back here before I looked at it." She admits as she plops down on the couch and grabs the envelope from her purse. I sit down next to her and watch her curiously as she hesitates to open it.

"What are you waiting for? Open it." I urge her.

"I will." She insists. "I'm just thinking?"

"About what?"

"About the fact that he even offered me a job. He didn't even interview me, Logan. He offered me the editor job and he didn't feel the need to interview me."

My eyes grow wide at what she just said. Rory then realizes what she just said.

"Really? He offered you the editor position? Ace, that's awesome!" I exclaim.

"Yeah it is." She nods but she still seems tense.

"So why are you looking so worried?"

"It's not that I'm worried. It's just he wants me based solely on what you've told him."

"That's an assumption Rory and you know it." I tell her. "Sure I felt like bragging you up while I was there. But that's not all Scott is basing his opinion of your writing on. He's read it. You would excel so well at the job, Rory." I grin at her which I see is making her relax more now. Good, I'm glad that worked. "You're an amazing writer and you were a fantastic editor at Yale so I have no doubt that you would do the job well."

"Thank you." She gives me a small smile. "Do you realize that you would be my boss?"

"And what wrong with that?" I frown. "You've been my boss before."

"True." She nods. "That was school though."

"Really? Is that really one of the things that would deter you from taking a position like this?"

She sighs. "It's something we need to consider, Logan. I mean we're getting married and then also working together. We're not going to have any time apart. We're going to drive each other crazy."

"You do realize that we would have separate offices, right?"

"That's true, I guess." She shrugs. "But that's not the only thing that's getting to me."

"OK." I nod. "What else is?"

"Well, a magazine is great but I was going to try for newspapers, you know?"

"I know but Rory I don't want to write the job off because of that."

"I'm not writing the job off. Scott is giving me time to decide. He says it's going to be awhile before the magazine's launched."

"So why don't you at least open the envelope and we can see what kind of thinking Scott has for the magazine?" I suggest and she opens the envelope. She keeps the first sheet for herself which I'm assuming is the salary information and hands me the remaining 3 sheets. Her expression is hard to read so I can't tell if what she's seeing is making her happy or not.

"So…" I trail off and she hands me the paper.

"It's impressive." She admits and after I look at the sheet, I happen to agree with her.

"Are you going to keep this among the options?"

"Of course I will. If there's one thing that I've learned from the ProJo offer is that I'm going to make a decision once I get all of the offers in." She pauses for a moment. "That is, if I get any more offers."

"You will, Ace. You will."

"I hope so."

"You will. I promise." I pull her close to me and kiss her forehead. "Any newspaper would be lucky to have you."

"Thank you Logan."

"You know," I smirk. "There are some advantages of both of us working at the same place."

"Like what?"

"Like," I lay down on the couch and pull her on top of me. "It would give us the perfect opportunity to try out one of my ultimate fantasies."

"One of your fantasies, huh?" She smirks back at me. "Do tell."

"Well, I came up with it back when were at Yale on the newspaper and you were still editor. See you were my boss and I was just your employee. You were very much a dominatrix and threw me on your desk…"

"I threw you?" She starts to laugh.

"OK so you had some help."

She kisses me. "So why haven't you thought to act on it?"

"There just wasn't enough time to." I kiss her. "But now…now it could be a blast."

"I'm not your boss anymore." She reminds me.

"Oh, I'd let you be in order to fulfill the fantasy." I unbutton her dress and toss it on the floor.

Half an hour later we haven't moved from the couch at all. It's quiet; almost too quiet. I'm curious what she's thinking about.

"Why are you so quiet, Ace? What's on your mind?"

"Your parents."

I scowl. "Good God why?"

"Have you told them yet?"

"I told you. I wasn't planning on telling them anything until we got back."

"I think we should do both in one night." Rory concludes. "We can have drinks at your parents' house and then we'll do dinner at my grandparents'. I want to kill 2 birds with one stone."

"That's completely up to you, Ace." I tell her.

"Yeah, that's going to require you calling them before we actually get back."

"Why? Do you want to do this the night we get back?"

She shrugs. "No probably not that night but probably the next one."

"I'll call them tomorrow. You need to talk to your grandparents you know."

"I'll call them tomorrow after you talk to your parents. We'll need to arrange the time to have drinks with your parents before I can give my grandparents a time we'll be there."

"True." I hear my stomach growl then so we both laugh. "Come on…let's order some food."

The next day, I call my dad on his cell phone and talk to him for roughly 5 minutes. I keep it short on purpose. I tell him how we'll be back the day after tomorrow and that Rory and I wanted to meet with them. I think he knows that I proposed but he didn't voice it.

"OK." I say after I hit end to hand up the call. "We're meeting them at 7 on Monday. Do you want to call your grandparents?"

"Yeah, I better." Rory calls her grandparents' home number and talks to her grandma for a few minutes then calls her parents. We'll be meeting with her family at 8. I think that an hour is more than suffice for drinks. Any longer than that and I think we may kill each other.

The next couple days we spend shopping, sight-seeing, and making a visit to Napa Valley. It's nice that it's only an hour away. We get back to Stars Hollow at around 8 o'clock Sunday Night. Rory and her mom are having a lengthy discussion and have been pretty much since the moment we walked back into the house. Their main topics are our trip, the money and of course when she will do the reenactment. I guess the people in town have been pestering Lorelai since we left. I feel sorry for her. I still find it bizarre at the lengths she has to go through to appease the people of this town. I realize that Rory's doing it for her mom but still. The fact that they have this much power is just creepy. When Rory agreed to have the wedding in New York, I silently took a huge sigh of relief. They decide to alert everyone for a town meeting tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully this takes no more than half an hour tops. I have no idea just how big of a shindig this is going to be.

I underestimated to say the least. It took almost an hour and a half. If I had to bet, I'd say that 95% of Stars Hollow turned out for it. After the reenactment is over, someone asks Rory where we're having the wedding. She tells them it has yet to be determined. I smirk to myself.

At 6 o'clock I'm talking to Lorelai, her friend Sookie, and Sookie's husband when I steal a glance at Rory. She's over talking to Lane and Zach and a couple of other guys who I got introduced to earlier as the other members of Lane's band. I point to my watch and she nods. She does a little speech about how she enjoyed doing the reenactment but we had to leave. I tell Lorelai that Rory and I will see her in a couple of hours. She nods and I tell them bye. We hurry to her car and head back to Rory's house to change. I dressed down for the reenactment. I honestly didn't think that we would be this long. I didn't think about wearing my suit to this. I have to wonder what my parents would say if I just walked into their house wearing a T-shirt and shorts. I could just picture my mom's appalled face. I scrap that idea though. I don't need to give them any additional ammunition.

We arrive at my parents' house just before 7. I think this is the first time I've ever been early to anything at their house. I help Rory out of her seat and I see she's shaking as she stares at the house. I know the last time we were here is currently racing through her mind.

I lean over and give her a quick kiss. "You're going to be fine, Ace. We'll get through this." I look her up and down. "You look gorgeous by the way." I see her blushing so I give her another kiss. She seems to be calming down now. "Come on. Let's get this over with."

As soon as I ring the doorbell, Rory's phone starts to vibrate. She pulls it out and looks at it.

"It's my dad. I doubt he would be calling unless it was important given the fact that he knows we'll be seeing him in less than an hour."

"No go ahead and take the call." I tell her. "I understand."

The door opens and my parents' butler James lets us in. Rory answers her phone and I whisper how I'll be in the parlor room which is to the right of the foyer. I walk into the room and see everyone's eyes fall on me.

"Hello everyone." I greet them cordially.

"Logan." My dad and grandpa nod at the same time.

"Hello darling." My mom's expecting a hug here. I give her a half hug and head to the bar to fix myself a drink.

"So where's Rory?" My dad is looking around the room. "I thought you told me she was coming tonight."

"She's here." I tell him. "She got an important call from her dad when we got here."

My mom smiles tightly and I scowl at her. "What mom?"

"Nothing. Just seems to be awfully convenient, that's all."

"OK everyone listen up because I'm only going say this once. This will not be a repeat of the night that Rory visited last time. We're only here because we figured we owed it to you."

"Owed what to us?" My mom asks.

"Hello everyone." Rory tells us as she comes in from the foyer and takes a seat next to me. She slips her phone back into her purse.

"Everything OK, Ace?"

She nods. "Yeah. Dad just wanted to tell me how his mom's also coming to the dinner."

"Really?"

"I haven't seen her in like 6 years."

"I was going to need to meet her eventually you know?" I get up to go make her a drink. "What do you want to drink?"

"Club soda is fine."

"So how are you, Rory?" My dad asks her.

"I'm good. My graduation from Yale was little over a week ago." I hand her the club soda and she thanks me.

"We just got back from our week long celebration." I explain to them as I sit back down and take a drink of my scotch. "We spent a few days in New York and the last few in California. I showed Rory where I'm going to be working and the house that I wanted us to live in."

"Live in?" My mom repeats.

"Yes mom. Rory's moving to California with me." I state matter of factly. "We're engaged."

"Absolutely not." My grandpa grumbles. "I forbid it."

"This isn't the 1950's, grandpa. I don't need your permission. We're getting married whether you like it or not. If you're not going to be happy for us, don't come."

"Logan, calm down." My dad tells me.

"No I won't. Like I said we're only here because we felt we owed it to you." I look over at my mom who has a look of contempt on her face. "Why don't you just say whatever you're going to say mom and get it over with?" I complain.

"Are you pregnant?" She demands and Rory and I share a quiet laugh.

"See? I told you that would be her first question." Rory nudges me.

"Yeah, leave it to me to think that she'd actually wait to ask that. No, mom Rory's not pregnant. We do actually believe in birth control, thank you. If she was pregnant we would not be waiting until October to have the wedding."

"October?" My dad repeats.

"Yes." Rory nods. "October 20th actually. The church, the reception hall, and the hotel have already been booked. That's part of what we spent our time doing in New York. We made arrangements."

"How lovely." My mom puts on a fake smile and I mentally roll my eyes. She may be my mom but she's still one of the most superficial people on the planet. I glance at the time. Damn it's only been 20 minutes. A second later, I feel Rory grab my left hand and interlace our fingers together. She grins at me which of course causes me to grin right back at her.

"Well, I guess if this marriage is going to happen we'll just need to make an iron clad prenuptial agreement." My grandpa states.

"There's not going to be a prenuptial agreement, grandpa." I respond.

"The hell there isn't!" He roars.

"Forget it." I fire back. "We have an agreement." I squeeze Rory's hand. "She's not making me sign one and I'm not making her sign one."

"Why on earth would she make you sign one?" My mom says bitterly. "It's not like she has money."

I'm starting to lose it here. "Neither did you until you married dad."

"Logan you do not speak to your mother that way." My dad yells at me.

"It's the truth!" I yell back. "The prenup is the only reason that you two are still married. She knows she won't get a dime if you get divorced."

"I will not let you speak to my wife this way."

"And I won't allow all of you to treat my future wife this way! This is ridiculous!" I jump to my feet.

"Logan, calm down." Rory whispers as she tugs on my hand.

"No Rory. This is stupid. I should have just given you all the news on the phone. That's all you can think about isn't it? The money. Well, guess what mom? She's inheriting an obscene amount of money from her grandparents, particularly her dad's parents, the Haydens."

My grandpa's face grows white. "The Haydens?"

"That's right." Rory tells him. "My grandparents are Straub and Francine Hayden."

"Yeah I had to wonder whether or not you would all recognize that last name." I smugly tell them as I sit back down. "That's what our dinner is for. She's going to go look over her trusts and have revisions made. She doesn't even want any of our money."

"In other words, why would I need it when I'll have a nice windfall to dive into of my own if I so happen to need it? The last thing I want or need is your money." Rory smiles tightly at my mother.

"There, you got an oral prenup, OK? But you're not getting a written one. Do whatever you want. Cut off my damn trust if you feel like it; I'll survive just fine without it." I proclaim to them all.

"Logan, what are you doing?" Rory's looking panicked now. "You don't want to do that."

"I think it would be wise to listen to your fiancée now, boy because if she doesn't sign one that is what will happen. You will be cut off." My grandpa threatens.

"Be my guest. I don't want it. I'll do just fine without it." I answer as I glance at the clock. It's 10 to 8. "And on that note, Rory and I will be leaving. We have a very important dinner to get to." We stand up to leave.

"Logan you can't just leave." My dad protests. "You can't just walk away from your dynasty."

"Yes, I can…and I am." I state adamantly. "I don't work for you anymore, remember? Until we reach a mutual agreement where you will be accepting of the fact that Rory is going to be my wife, I don't want any contact with any of you and that includes coming to our wedding. Come on, Rory. Let's go." I storm out of the room and it's not until I get into the foyer that I realize that Rory's not behind me. I turn back to get her when I hear her scolding them.

"I really hope you three know what you're doing. This is part of the reason I've been reluctant to accept the trust funds that my great-grandma and my grandparents' have set up for me; money tends to illuminate the ugliness in people." I can see her staring at my mother.

"You shouldn't comment about things you have no knowledge on." My grandpa comments meanly and I'm about to barge in and get her out of the room when I hear her retort.

"With all due respect sir you don't know me any more than I know you. You don't scare me. I'm a hell of a lot stronger than I look. I would think long and hard before you make any rash decisions like cutting Logan off just because I won't sign a prenup. For the record, I never told him I wouldn't sign one. He said he wasn't going to have me sign one. I have told you repeatedly I don't want your money. Believe it or not you can have a marriage based on other things besides money. Like love. I happen to be very much in love with your grandson and your son and I know he loves me."

I grin. I still honestly believe I fell in love with her the day we jumped at the Life and Death Brigade gathering.

Her gaze is darting back and forth between everyone. "You know, I really want to work this out and get along but you have to be willing to do it. It's time to face facts. I'm not going anywhere. It's been three years and I'm still here, Shira." She's staring at my mom. "It's time to give up the hope that your son is going to marry a trophy wife because it's not going to happen. I know I'm not the girl you wanted your son to marry but I refuse to apologize for who I am. I've worked hard to get everything I've accomplished and you know what? Logan understands that. He wants nothing more than to see me get my dream. So let me spell this out for you: I'm sick of this. I've put up with this for 3 years and I'm not going to do it anymore. If you don't come to the wedding, you won't hurt my feelings but I can promise you that Logan's never going to forgive you." She spins on her heels and as soon as she gets into the foyer, she gasps. Apparently she didn't think that I would still be waiting for her.

"What?" I ask.

"I thought you went to the car."

"I wasn't going to abandon you in here, Ace." I grab her hand. "Come on. We need to get going." We make our way out to the car. I open the door for her and then I get into the passenger side. It's quiet for a moment. Rory's the one who breaks the ice though.

"Logan…" She says as she starts her car.

"Yeah Ace?"

"Please tell me that this isn't going to be like the last time."

"No it's not." I confirm. I was so quiet that night the last time we came back from my parents' house. I'm sure I scared her with how I was acting. "Don't worry. I'm really sorry, Rory. I was naïve in believing that time had changed them but I was wrong."

"It's OK." She tells me as she pulls out of the driveway and on to the highway.

"No, it's not." I watch her drive. The sun's just starting to set right now. The sky is a canvas of orange and pink. It's a really beautiful sunset. It's nice to have a tranquil moment like this before the dinner given what the drinks were like. Hopefully this is a good sign as to how it's going to go.

"You didn't have to tell them what you did, Logan." She's keeping her eyes on the road. "You just decided that it would be OK for them to cut you off."

"It is OK, Rory. I really am fine with it." I reply as I look over at her. "You know I heard what you told them."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, I must admit I'm rather impressed."

"Really? By what?"

"You stood up for yourself…and for me." I grin at her. "They can be intimidating." I admit.

"They can." She agrees as she parks in front of Richard and Emily's house. "But I meant what I told them. I'm not afraid of them." She states and I almost believe her. "We'll get through this together."

"Yes we will." I give her a quick kiss and we get out of the car.

"OK." She sighs as we arrive at the front door. "One down, one to go."

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**OK before anyone asks, Logan's not going to be cut off here. Yes, it may be awhile before we hear from Logan's parents or grandpa again but he's not going to be cut off. I thought it was time that Rory stood up for herself here. I had thought about writing that conversation differently...like bitchier but I was still trying to make it believable. OK so good news here. I haven't started working on the dinner yet however, my vacation starts at 7 pm Saturday and goes all the way the following Saturday so I'm going to have plenty of time to write. I'm hoping to have the next one out by Tuesday, Wednesday for sure. I love the reviews! Please please remember to review! **


	13. Well, I like him already

**OK so it was a few days after I said it would be. Really sorry about that. My grandma came down to visit and she like never visits so I had to commit Wednesday to being her driver. Seriously, I'm going to stop committing to a deadline here. I had a hard time with this chapter and trying to think of stipulations so I only really came up with a few. Now as far as the whole how Francine is still addressed here, I originally saw in someone else's story how they used grandmother for Francine and addressed Rory as Lorelai Leigh. When I originally wrote it, I tried it out that way but then I decided to just do grandma and Rory because I looked at the transcript from season 1 and how they addressed each other and she calls her Rory. It may be hard to follow but remember this way, Emily is addressed as grandma when she's talking and Francine is Francine as far as dialogue goes. Anyway, as always thanks for the reviews! I really appreciate them. I hope I can get over 100 for my reviews with this chapter :D Please remember to review! **

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We now stand in front of my grandparents' front door and I'm hesitating ringing the doorbell. Logan notices and pulls me to the side.

"Are you OK?"

I nod and take a deep breath in and out. "I'm just preparing myself."

Logan leads me back to the door and rings the bell then while we're waiting for the maid to open the door, he grabs my hand. A few seconds later, a petite Hispanic young woman answers.

"Hello." She greets us quietly.

"Hello." I respond with a smile. "I'm Rory. This is Logan. We're here for dinner."

The maid nods and moves back to open the door further to let us in. "Come in. Everyone is gathering in the living room."

"Thank you." We tell her in unison and make our way into the living room. Everyone is already here including my dad's mom. "Hi everyone. Sorry we're late."

"Well, there they are." My mom's mom comes to me and gives me a hug. "We were beginning to wonder what happened to you two."

"My apologies, Emily." Logan's quick to respond. "We got delayed in leaving my parents' house."

"Yes…so how did that go?" My grandpa asks.

Logan and I share a look. "Umm…let's call it…" I drift off.

"Memorable." Logan fills in.

"Ohh…" My mom looks worried. "That's not sounding good."

"Well, the storming out was the same but it was different than the first time." Logan explains.

"Like how?"

"Actually mom we'll fill you in on the details at home, OK?"

"OK." She nods.

"Hey kiddo." My dad comes over and gives me a hug and a kiss.

"Hey dad."

"Hey Logan." He shakes Logan's hand.

"Hi Chris. Good to see you."

"You too." He glances over at his mom who is talking to my grandpa. "Mom, come over here for a moment."

Francine hasn't changed much in the last 6 years appearance wise. Her hair is shorter and maybe has a little more gray but overall she still looks relatively the same.

"Hello, Rory." She smiles at me.

"Hello, grandma. I was so glad to hear you were going to be joining us tonight. It's nice to see you again."

"It's very nice to see you too, Rory. Now would you please introduce me to the handsome young man you've brought with you?"

I grin. "Of course. Grandma, this is Logan Huntzberger, my fiancé. Logan, this is my grandma Francine Hayden."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Hayden." He shakes her hand.

"Likewise, Logan. It's nice to know that one of the Huntzberger men has manners." She comments and Logan and I share a look of amusement.

"Mom…be nice." My dad tells her.

"I am being nice."

"Really, it's OK, Chris. Actually, I believe that both my sister and I picked up our etiquette training at boarding school. I will confirm for you that I didn't learn it from them."

"That's very reassuring to hear especially considering that your grandfather is a jackass."

"Francine!" My grandma gasps.

Logan and I start to laugh. "She's not telling me anything that I didn't already know, Emily." Logan tells her then turns to Francine. "Actually, I happen to wholeheartedly agree with you, Mrs. Hayden. He is and to be honest, my father is just as bad. I have spent years doing everything in my power to ensure that I am nothing like either one of them."

"Well, I like him already."

Everyone laughs at that. It's amazing just how easy that was. Actually one might say it was too easy.

"Well, thank you, ma'am and I need to tell you that I would be extremely interested in the story of why my grandpa looked like he had seen a ghost when I mentioned your last name."

Francine laughed a little. "In due time, Logan. In due time."

"Logan, Rory can I get you a drink?" My grandpa asks as he makes his way to the bar. Logan gets his usual scotch and I get my usual Coke. The maid comes in and tells us that dinner's ready. We make our way to the dining room and see the food being brought out.

"What did you have made, grandma?" I ask as Logan pulls my chair out for me. "Thank you Logan." I smile at him.

"You're welcome, Ace."

"Your favorite, Rory." She tells me as she take her seat at one end of the table. My grandpa is at the other end. My dad and dad's mom are on the opposite side of the table across from me and Logan and my mom is actually sitting on the other side of me.

Ahh…roast and mashed potatoes. Actually that sounds really good right now. "Yummy." I comment.

"Well, tell us about your trip, you two." My grandma says after everyone has gotten their food.

"It was good." I answer as I take a bite of my roast. "We got a lot accomplished."

"Really? That's great." My dad says.

"Yeah, the locations for the wedding, the reception, and the hotel room have all been set." Logan explains.

"So where have you chosen?" Francine asks.

"Well it's going to be in New York." I reply.

"I thought you hadn't decided yet." My mom reminds me and Logan and I laugh.

"Yeah, we lied about that. I just didn't want to have to deal with all of those town people interrogating me."

"You know they're going to find out eventually, kid."

"I know." I tell her.

"Actually Lorelai, Rory already gave them fair warning about the wedding." Logan adds.

"They knew there was a likelihood that it wouldn't be in town. They were also made aware that if it wasn't in Stars Hollow there wasn't going to be a reenactment and you would not be blamed for that."

"And what kind of a response did you get to that?"

"I stormed out before they could protest. The point is, I knew I was going to have to deal with one revolt today, I didn't need another one."

"Was it really that bad?" My grandpa asks.

"Yes." Logan and I respond in unison.

"So where in New York?" My dad asks.

"Saint Paul's Chapel for the ceremony..." Logan starts.

"The Gotham Hall for the reception…" I add as my grandma chimes in.

"Oh, that place is gorgeous! Your grandfather and I attended a charity event there."

I nod. "I know it's amazing. Logan and I fell in love with it as soon as we saw it."

"And we have the Plaza Hotel reserved for the hotel." Logan finishes.

"Sounds like you have a good head start." My grandpa tells us.

"We do but the time is going to go fast."

"When are you thinking?" My dad asks.

"October 20th." Logan answers.

"October?" My mom repeats as her eyes grow wide.

"That's really soon." My grandma comments.

"October was Logan's choice." I explain.

"Well, I guess first thing tomorrow I'll make some calls and we'll get a wedding planner hired for you."

I'm quick to jump in. "Oh, that's really not necessary, grandma."

"Of course it is. Rory, there's still so much planning to do and with you moving you won't have enough time to do it all in."

I look to my mom for support. Mom shrugs. "Sorry, kid. For once, I actually agree with mom."

"Can I get that in writing?" My grandma retorts.

I sigh in defeat. I really wanted to try and pull everything off by ourselves. Of course, the more I think about it, grandma does have a good point. I mean, with moving and Logan will be spending at least a couple months adjusting to his new job, it will be a pretty busy time. "OK, I guess."

My grandma's eyes light up. "Wonderful. I'll start making some calls first thing tomorrow."

We spend the rest of dinner talking about going to California and what we did there. Logan explains about his job and what he'll be doing.

"So Rory…any job offers?" My grandpa asks as we eat dessert.

Logan and I share a look. "Well…" I hesitate.

"Yes, actually she did get one as a matter of fact." Logan informs them. I stomp on his foot.

"Ow!" He yelps. "That hurt!"

"What's going on?" My dad asks.

"It's nothing. Rory is just having a hard time considering it a job offer since it came from my boss. She thinks the only reason she is getting it is because of me which is not true no matter how many times I tell you it. You got offered the job because Scott thinks you're an excellent writer. He's read your work, Rory. You got offered the job because he thinks you would excel in the position."

"What position is it for?" Francine asks.

"The editor-in-chief for the online magazine." I tell them quietly.

"Wow! That's incredible, Rory!" My dad exclaims.

"It is." I nod. "Scott is giving me time to decide."

"What would possibly be making you hesitate?" My grandma asks.

"Well, I was hoping to get job offers at newspapers, not magazines."

"Well, that's understandable." My grandpa nods.

"Then of course there is the other thing." I mention and Logan frowns.

"We've talked about this."

"I know. It's still an issue though." I remind him.

"What is?"

"Logan would be my boss."

"Oh." My mom remarks.

"It wouldn't change anything though." He argues.

"Maybe not," My mom agrees, "but I can understand her thinking."

"I haven't ruled the offer out but I'm going to try and see if I can get with a newspaper."

"It's very wise to weigh out all of your options." Francine says.

"My thoughts exactly." I nod.

It's almost nine-thirty by the time we all gather in grandpa's study to review the paperwork. The first one is Gran's. It does surprise me that she doesn't have many stipulations however she did have a clause. She reserved $100,000 to go and do something daring. I think that being in the Life and Death Brigade is what made her add it in. I point out the clause to Logan and his face breaks out into a huge grin.

"I'm still not going to Costa Rica." I remind him.

"And you still aren't getting a say in the location, Ace." Logan remarks as he sips his scotch.

"Let me rephrase. You're not touching the money unless I get a confirmation that we're not going to Costa Rica."

"Fine. It won't be Costa Rica. You worry too much, Rory." He grumbles.

"Is there a problem?" My grandpa asks as he raises an eyebrow.

"No, everything's fine, grandpa." I look over the paperwork which is two sheets. "Is this everything for Gran's trust?" I did find how she suggested that when we have kids, how she would like to see the Lorelai name continue. I did point that out to Logan and his response is:

"Well, I pretty much figured we were going to anyway."

I smile. It's nice that he was figuring that.

"Yes that is all of her paperwork." My grandpa confirms.

"So she had no other guidelines for giving me this money?"

"Well, she chose to have me be your trustee until you were married. What will happen is that until 6 weeks before your wedding I will remain your trustee. At that time, I will turn both trusts over to you."

"So you're not going to require Logan to sign any prenuptial agreement either?"

"Don't get me wrong. If you were planning on marrying anyone other than Logan, I would definitely be enforcing one but your grandmother and I have reached the conclusion that we are fine without having Logan sign one."

I look over at my mom and I can see concern crossing her face especially since she knows it wasn't all that long ago that Logan made a bad business venture. I honestly don't see him doing that again though.

"We know you won't spend it frivolously."

"I have no intention of doing that." I confirm.

"OK so kiddo," My dad starts, "why don't you tell your grandma your thoughts about what she is offering you."

My stomach tightens and then Logan interlaces our fingers together just like I did at his house and he grins at me. I think he can sense just how nervous I am. I smile back at him and then Francine.

"OK well first I must admit that I was shocked to see that I was receiving anything. I don't mean any disrespect by that, grandma. It's just our first meeting all those years ago wasn't exactly a positive one."

"I do apologize for that, Rory. That first meeting was horrendous. I wish it would have went differently." She admits to me.

Now that I know that, it is making me feel a little bit less tense. "Thank you."

"Your father said you were requesting some changes made regarding the prenuptial agreement."

"Yes, I am. Originally I wasn't going to accept it because of the prenup but dad wanted me to do some thinking about it. So I did and after talking to Logan about it, he told me that he was OK with it." I think hearing that is making my mom relax.

"Our original deal was," I continue, "that he wasn't going to make me sign one and I wouldn't make him sign one."

"I bet your family loved that." My mom smirks.

"Yeah, we're currently not speaking." Logan reveals. "They're also disinvited from the wedding until they accept that Rory is going to be my wife." I think he flat out impresses mom. I hear all of the grandparents gasp.

"Logan, did you walk away from your family?" My grandma says slowly.

"Yeah I did and honestly…it felt great." He's actually beaming. "I was getting so tired of being treated like a puppet."

"So here's the revision I would like made. It's the only one, actually. While it would be great to have no prenup, I realize with $150 million that is just not going to happen. I would like a sunset provision put in."

"What is a sunset provision?" My mom looks confused.

"A timeline." My dad replies.

"What I was thinking was that it could expire either after 5 years or after the birth of our 1st child."

Francine looks like she's deep in thought. "Before I agree to this. I have some questions for Logan."

"Absolutely." Logan nods.

"Do you love my granddaughter?"

He's beaming again. "Words can't describe how much I love your granddaughter, Mrs. Hayden."

"And you fully understand what wants out of life? What her dreams are?"

"Of course." He nods. "She's an amazing journalist. I've known that for almost as long as I've known her. I've always encouraged her. The sky's the limit for what she can do."

"You're exaggerating, Logan." I nudge him.

"Absolutely not, Ace. I bet I could get everyone else in this room to agree with me." I then hear all of them agreeing with him.

"You've always been too modest, Rory." He points out.

I smile. Yeah some people may think I am being too modest. We'll just agree to disagree.

"Have you thought about kids?"

I'm trying to tell if the question bothers him. We really haven't went in depth on the subject.

"Yeah, I want us to have kids. I think that will be a little ways down the line but I know we will."

I grin at him. Logan's going to be an excellent father I can tell. He's going to be the antithesis of his dad. Besides the fact that our kids are going to be gorgeous. I spent the first 17 years of my life as an only child and while I don't begrudge my mom for not having any more kids, there were times it felt lonely. Gigi's my sister and I love her but it isn't all that often that I get to see her. I definitely want us to have more than 1 kid. With hope they will end up having a close bond like Logan and Honor do.

"We haven't really talked too much about it, grandma. Logan's right though. We will eventually have kids but I think it will be awhile. We want to get through the wedding first and I want Logan to have time to adjust to his job and just us adjusting to being married. I think we want some time by ourselves first."

My mom's mom looks like I just told her that we were never having kids.

"What's wrong grandma?" I ask.

"Nothing Rory." She puts on a tight smile which makes my mom groan.

"Geez, mom. Could you sound a little more disapproving? You should be applauding your granddaughter for the fact that she has her life so planned out. It's not going to kill you to have to wait awhile before you have great-grandkids." Mom points out.

"Any other questions grandma?" I turn my attention back to Francine.

"Just two more. If I didn't agree to this change, what would you do?"

"We would still move to California, still be planning the wedding. We would continue with everything…"

And I cut Logan off. "And the money would stay with you or you could always add it to what you were planning on giving Gigi. I've already told Logan, grandma. I've survived my whole life without being rich. I didn't need it before and I know we could do just fine without it now. If you don't want to put in the sunset provision, I'll understand but you'll be receiving the money back."

Francine just stares at me for a moment. She doesn't look upset by what I'm telling her which is good.

"So what was your last question, Mrs. Hayden?" Logan asks her.

"What is it that you love about my granddaughter?"

"She's smart, she's beautiful, she's not afraid of a challenge, and when she sees something that she wants, she's not afraid to go after it and get it."

"Like you?" My mom smirks again.

Logan grins. "Like me. No, actually I was thinking more with her writing. She throws herself into her writing. She's very passionate with her writing. She's driven, she's inspiring…"

OK, so I have to stop him. "Logan, you can stop now. You're drifting into cheesy territory here."

"And she's extremely modest."

"Logan the more you talk, the more she may question whether or not you're being serious or not."

"I know he's being serious, Rory dear." She interjects and I close my mouth. "I have no doubt that he's telling the truth."

"Mom, did you really feel it was necessary to grill Logan like you did?" My dad asks her.

"To ensure he was nothing like his predecessors, yes, I did."

"Logan's nothing like his father, Francine." My mom vouches which surprises both me and Logan. "I only met the man for 5 minutes and I can personally attest to that."

"When did you meet Mitchum Huntzberger, Lorelai?" My grandma looks shocked.

"Valentine's day last year. Logan, Rory, Luke, and I were at Martha's Vineyard together at Logan's house."

"How is it that we never knew that, Richard?" My grandma looks at my grandpa.

"I don't know, Emily."

"Mom, it's not that big of a deal. Let's move on."

"So mom…" My dad says. "what do you say? Will you honor your granddaughter's request?"

"Of course I will."

Logan and I are each grinning from ear to ear. He gives me a quick kiss.

"Logan, I have no doubt that you're a perfect match for my granddaughter."

"Well, thank you, Mrs. Hayden. I appreciate you saying that. I'd like to think that I'm a perfect match for her too."

"Oh you are." I tell him. He gives me another kiss again.

It's just after 11:30 when we get ready to leave. Francine is going to have the prenup drawn up by her lawyer and we will sign it. I'm so glad that this dinner turned out so much better than the drinks did. I'm just glad this night is over in general.

I get in the driver's seat and look over at Logan who is buckling his seatbelt. "So how are you doing?"

He glances over at me once he has it buckled. "I'm doing good."

"Were those questions getting to you?"

He shakes his head. "No, they were fine. She didn't ask me anything out of the ordinary."

"Really? So the question about kids didn't get to you?"

He looks surprised. "No, it didn't. Why? Did it get to you?"

I shrug. "No, not really it's just we really haven't talked too much about it."

"Well, that's something we'll be needing to talk more about. I do agree with you. I think it would be nice to take some time adjusting to everything before we do."

"Right." I start the car and head out of my grandparents' driveway. "So what did you think of her?"

"I think she's a great lady. I'm actually more curious to hear what you thought of her."

"This time was definitely different than the first time. Of course it was my dad's dad who did most of the talking that time." I break out in a huge grin. "I thought it was funny what she said about your grandpa."

Logan laughs. "That was funny but it's like I told Emily, it is the truth. I am glad that I was able to convince her that I am nothing like my dad or grandpa."

"It was nice that this evening wasn't all bad." I tell him.

"Yeah, at least it ended well."

About 20 minutes later, I pull into my mom's driveway. She shouldn't be too far behind us. I yawn. I'm so tired but there's still so much stuff running through my head. I still have to find my wedding dress and the bridesmaid dresses, and register for gifts, get engagement pictures done. Oh, I hope and pray that I can sleep tonight…

* * *

**I'm not really happy with how I ended this but it's going to be leading into the next chapter which starts when they go into the house. It's true that Rory has never needed money but it did come in handy for her when she needed it for her schooling. So dinner did go better at least. It was hard trying to figure out how Francine would be and the questions I had her ask were tough to come up with. The next chapter I think I'll have it as both of their POV. It will start with Logan's though. I'm going to cover the move with him and Rory shopping for her wedding dress with her POV. Now given this, it will be longer aka take me some time to write. I'm not committing to a deadline again because I won't meet it but the more reviews I get the faster I will write so keep reviewing!**


	14. Author's Note

Hey everyone! OK so I'm having a hard time deciding which wedding dress Rory should have so I decided to do a poll on it. There's 6 dresses and she is going to try on all 6 dresses but as far which she'll end up picking will be up to you. Now all of the dresses are strapless and none of them are in taffeta. Go vote in the poll and let me know which one you like the best. Also I'm sure that all of the pictures are posted on my bio but I had some trouble with it earlier on whether or not it worked so if it's not for some odd reason, let me know and I can try to submit it again.

The new chapter will be out soon! Thanks for voting!

Mandy


	15. You're marrying Rory?

**OK so this was a very, very lengthy chapter. It's telling me that it was over 8700 words even before this note. I did it from both perspectives. First a note about this chapter and you need to read this carefully. DO NOT read too much into who appears in this chapter. They will only appear in this story once. I just felt it was necessary to have them appear. OK, next thank you to all who voted for Rory's wedding dress. I stopped when I hit 25. I needed to write it in the story otherwise I would have been kept the poll open longer. Logan talking about moving and is very minimal and Rory's dress hunt was the primary focus of this chapter but that changed when I thought of something else to write. By the way you'll notice some similiarities about the beginning of this chapter and also the Hay Bale Maze episode. Thank you, thank you for all the reviews. Hopefully this chapter doesn't disappoint you. I know you had to wait like 2 1/2 weeks for it. Please remember to review!**

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I wake up to constant tapping. It takes me a minute to realize that it's typing on a keyboard. I glance at the clock and groan. It's 4:12.

"Rory, it's 4 in the morning. What are you doing?" I'm currently in Rory's bed and she's on the trundle bed.

"Finding my wedding dress." She tells me. Her eyes never leave the laptop screen.

"And you feel it's a necessity to do this at 4 in the morning? Go to sleep." I advise as I take the laptop away from her.

"But…" She starts to protest.

"Rory, you need sleep. I promise we will get everything done in time. Granted we don't have as much time as some people but that is what the wedding planner is for."

"I don't want a wedding planner." She argues.

"I know you don't but we need one. Come on Ace we have the move, you job search, me starting mine. It never hurts to have help sometimes."

She sighs which now leads me to believe that I'm winning. "OK, fine." She yawns. Her eyes start to drift shut. Once I see she's asleep I go ahead and put on a t-shirt and shorts and very quietly sneak out to the kitchen with her laptop in tow. I have to find someplace to hide this until later otherwise I have no doubt that she will be back on it within an hour. I walk out into the kitchen and I see Lorelai sitting at the kitchen table sipping what I believe is coffee. The light over the stove is on otherwise the room is completely dark. Paul Anka is down by her chair though.

"We have a habit of meeting like this, don't we?"

She gives me a small smile as she sips her coffee. "Yeah, we do. Do you want some coffee?"

I shake my head and go to the cupboard for a glass for water. "No, I'm not going to stay awake much longer. I'm waiting for Rory to fall asleep." I explain as I fill my glass with water. "I need you to do me a favor." I take a seat next to her and move the laptop in front of her. "I need you to hold onto this until later."

"Why? What's going on?"

"I found her searching for wedding dresses just now. I took it away from her and told her she needed to go to sleep."

"She's getting overwhelmed." Lorelai points out.

"Yeah, I know. I'm going to do everything I can to make sure she doesn't."

"Are you sure you want the wedding in October?"

"Look, Lorelai we talked about it and we decided we wanted to still get married this year. I know it is really close but I know we can pull this off."

"I have no doubt you can but you need to remember this is what it will be like for the next 5 months. Rory may have agreed to the wedding planner but I can still see her thinking she's got superpowers and trying to plan the majority of it without help."

I nod and take a drink of my water. I know she's right. "So what are you doing up?" I ask her.

"Luke just left to go open the diner." She explains.

"Already?"

"Yeah, he tends to open it at 5:30 even though it says it's not officially open until 6."

"But you don't go back to sleep?"

Lorelai shrugs. "Sometimes I do, sometimes I just get up when he does. I guess I've got some stuff on my mind that's keeping me awake."

"Is it the wedding stuff?" I'm scared that she's going to scream yes at me.

"Umm…yes and no." She admits. "It's more about the money."

"What about it? Is it the amount or the fact that everyone is pretty much giving her free reign on it?"

"Both."

"Are you worried that we're and by that I mean me is going to go blow it all and she won't have anything left?"

She goes quiet for a second and I know I've guessed right. I can't say I blame her for being concerned. "We've come a long way, you and I, Logan but I'm still a mom and I still feel like I need to be extra cautious about certain things and this is one of them."

"I can see why." I admit as I take another drink of my water. "I never asked her to have the prenup changed though, Lorelai. I told her that it would be fine and she told me that it would either be changed or she wouldn't take it and nothing else would change her mind. You know your daughter, Lorelai."

"Yeah, I know."

"She's incredibly headstrong."

"Stubborn is the correct term."

I smile. "I think that this is what she thought I was expecting since I told her that I wasn't making her sign one that I shouldn't have to sign one. This is the closest I could get to a compromise." I explain.

"Yeah about you not making her sign one; what happened last night?"

I sigh. "Basically, we told them we were engaged and my grandpa said he forbid it and I told him it wasn't his choice and I'm marrying Rory whether he liked it or not…"

Lorelai's smiling. I think I'm winning over my future mother-in-law.

"Grandpa made some comment about an iron clad prenup agreement and I said I wasn't making her sign it. He told me she would either sign it or my trust fund would be cut off. I told him I was fine with it being cut off. I told him I was fine with being cut off. The last thing I told them that until they accepted that Rory's going to be my wife, we don't have anything to talk about and they're not invited to the wedding."

"What did they say to that?"

"I didn't stick around to find out. I stormed out."

Lorelai frowns. "Just you did?"

I smirk. "Yeah. Rory decided to stick around and give them a piece of her mind."

Her eyes grow wide. "She did?"

"Yeah, she did. She was incredible." I confess. "I watched from the doorway. She basically reminded all of them, especially my mom, that we've been together a long time and that she needed to move on from her hope of me marrying a socialite. She told them that they didn't scare her and she refused to apologize for who she is."

"Go Rory." Lorelai smiles.

"My thoughts exactly." I grin. "So it wasn't exactly like last time."

"Apparently some things have changed."

"Yeah, they have." I finish my glass of water and put it by the sink. "Hey are you going to be pretty busy at the inn today?"

"I don't know; I don't think so…why?"

"Well, I was thinking maybe you and Rory could go dress shopping."

"I'll do some looking and see. Everything should be OK. I'll probably check with Lane and see if she wants to tag along."

"That's a good idea since you're both her honor attendants." I nod. "OK I'm going back to bed for at least a few hours." I head to Rory's bedroom door. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

I check the time as I crawl back in bed. It's 5:15. I look down at Rory who is turned on her left side towards me. She's asleep, though. Thank God! It's not long before I doze off too.

The next time I wake up it's 9:30. I immediately look down and I see that Rory's not in the trundle bed. Of course then I look down in my bed and I see her cuddled up right next to me. I kiss her forehead and she start to stir.

"Hey." She mumbles with her eyes still closed.

"Good morning, Ace. When did you crawl in bed with me?"

"About 6:30. After I begged my mom to tell me what you did with my laptop. She refused."

"Good. That's what she was supposed to do."

"Logan…" She opens her eyes and stares at me.

"Rory, I told her she could give it back to you later after you had slept but not until then. It worries me to see you like that mainly because I think you're going to get burnt out and I don't want that to happen, OK?"

"I know." She nods.

"You still need to sleep."

"I know."

"OK, now that we've gotten that straight how about my good morning kiss?"

She grins at me and gives me a quick kiss.

"Good morning." She says.

"Good morning."

"So what's on the agenda for today?" She asks me as she sits up.

"Well you're going to have a busy day."

She looks down at me confused. "Me? Why just me?"

"Because I believe your mom is taking the day off to take you dress shopping."

Her eyes light up. "Really? She is?"

"Well, I know she was going to try to. She said that she didn't think she would be too busy."

"Well, that's great."

"I think she was going to check with Lane to see if she wanted to go along."

"That's even better."

We get up and change and head out into the kitchen.

"Hey kids." Lorelai greets us.

"Hey mom." Rory says.

"Hey Lorelai."

"There's coffee and muffins."

"Thank you." I take one of the coffee cups that Lorelai has sitting on the table and take a drink of it. Everything is from Luke's apparently. Lorelai brought back a wide variety of muffins. I grab one of the blueberry ones and Rory takes a chocolate chip one. We're all sitting around the kitchen table eating and discussing today's plans. Lorelai tells us she was able to clear her schedule and take Rory to New York to go dress shopping. She also talked to Lane and she too was able to get off work.

"That's great." Rory smiles at her mom. "When did you want to leave?"

"In an hour." Lorelai tells her. "That way we can spend most of our day shopping."

"That's a good idea. I'll go get ready." Rory says as she gets up from her seat after she polishes off her muffin.

After Rory heads into the bathroom to go take a shower, I turn my attention to Lorelai and smile, "Thank you Lorelai."

"You're welcome. So what are you going to do?"

I shrug. "I'm not sure yet. Probably take inventory of all of our stuff for moving and make arrangements with the moving company."

"I thought you wanted us to help out."

"I wasn't sure if you would be able to swing it or not."

"Yeah, Luke and I have Friday through Monday off."

"Well, great."

"OK, I better finish getting ready." She pauses in the doorway. "You can always swing by Luke's if you get bored or hungry."

"I may just do that."

"Just be careful." She cautions me. "Rory's not going to be with you so the town people are more than likely going to be clinging to you."

I frown. "Do you really think it would be that bad?" I ask her.

"Do you really need to ask?"

* * *

So mom and I leave our house just before 11 and we pick up Lane on our way out of town. We take my Prius instead of mom's jeep otherwise Lane wouldn't have had any room.

"OK so my goal is to have my wedding dress and the bridesmaids dresses ordered by the time we leave."

"No pressure there." My mom says. "You know, hun, you're worrying Logan…and actually me too."

"I'm fine." I insist. "I promise."

"You just need to take things one day at a time." Mom adds gently.

"I will." I don't think either of us actually believes that though.

"So have you decided on what your colors are yet?" Lane asks me.

"Yeah, Logan wants hunter green and I want plum."

"Ooo…those should go great together." Lane gushes.

"That's what we thought too."

We arrive in Manhattan shortly before 12:30 and our first stop is to get something to eat. We stop by my favorite pizzeria and eat. It's really good too. While we're eating I give them a rough idea of what I had in mind for the bridesmaid dresses. I want them to be multi-functional. I think the worse thing is when you have dress that you wear once and then you can't wear again because it's too fancy. And I don't want them too expensive. Not everyone is super rich and made of money.

By the time we get to the bridal shop, it's 1:30. My heart is starting to race. Oh God, all this pressure! I hope I'm not having a panic attack. My mom reminds me to breathe and to take a few slow, deep breaths. I do and I start to relax more.

I go through the aisles to see what kind of dresses the store has to offer. I have found a few I like and there's a couple that mom found too. The first one I try on is an empire-waisted satin and chiffon strapless gown by Forever Yours Fantasy that my mom found. I come out and show her and my mom gives me a skeptical look.

"I don't know. I guess I picture it differently in my head."

"Lane, what do you think?" I ask.

"It's pretty." She admits. "But I think it's too soon to make a decision."

I nod. "You're right. I think I should try them all on before I make up my mind." I retreat back into the dressing room and try on dress #2. It's a pretty silk organza by Winnie Chlomin.

"Lots of beading." My mom comments. "It's pretty though."

Dress number 3 is by Mon Cheri. It's chiffon and has an empire waist.

"That's beautiful." Lane smiles.

"Do you think the beading is okay?"

"It's very subtle and not overwhelming."

"I'll put it in the maybe pile." I turn back and try on dress #4. It's a satin organza dress by Demetrios-Illusions. It's very ruffly. It has a matching jacket which both Lane and my mom immediately nix. They both like the dress though. Dress #5. Is one from the Jasmine Collection. It's a satin organza with beading.

"Ooo…very frilly." Lane comments.

"What do you think, mom?" I ask as I turn around in front of the wall of mirrors.

"You look gorgeous, hun." She smiles at me. "Are there any other dresses left or was this the last one?"

"This is the second to last one." I tell her. I head back into the dressing room and try on dress #6. It's by Maggie Sottero and is lace and satin. I come out from the dressing room and the expressions I see on my mom's and Lane's faces are priceless.

"That's it." They say at the same time.

"Really? You think so?" I ask as I turn around.

"Absolutely." Lane grins. "You look incredible, Rory."

"You really do, hun."

I sigh in relief. I have finally found my wedding dress.

* * *

It's just after 2 when I decide to venture outside. After Rory and Lorelai left this morning. I took inventory of everything being moved. I also talked to Colin and he, Finn, and Steph will be coming out to help move. After I got done with that, I watched some TV and Paul Anka and I had a nice, lengthy conversation on who has watched Willy Wonka and Pippi Longstocking more. He barked a lot during this talk so I'm assuming he's had to watch each of them as often as I have. Lorelai's neighbor came over just as I was leaving. Apparently Lorelai called her before she left to have her let Paul Anka out. We talked for a brief moment and I took off. Lorelai had told me she was leaving the keys to her jeep for me and I told her that I wouldn't need them. I'd probably just walk. She insisted though. She was pretty adamant that I needed to take it in case I would need a quick getaway. I would love to prove her wrong but she has lived in this town longer so she would know the people better than I would. I'll choose to believe her.

I park in front of Luke's and walk in and everyone's eyes turn onto me. I smile politely and take a seat on one of the bar stools.

Luke comes out from the kitchen and shakes my hand. "Hey Logan."

"Hey Luke." I tell him.

"What can I get you?"

"I'll have a cheeseburger, fries and a Coke."

Luke nods. "OK, be right back." He puts in my order and comes back with my Coke.

"So did Lorelai take Rory dress shopping?" He asks.

I nod as I take a drink of my Coke. "Yeah, they left around 11."

"Lorelai mentioned about how you had a very early wakeup call this morning."

"Yeah, I had to hide Rory's laptop from her."

"Well, hopefully they'll find her dress and things will calm down."

"Maybe." I hope so but I don't think it will. I turn around and I see that everyone is still staring at me.

"Am I really that fascinating?" I ask him in a quiet voice.

"Hey!" Luke yells at them. "Either eat, order, or get out!"

Everyone turns their attention back to their own food. Luke brings me my food 5 minutes later and I dive right in.

"Very good." I compliment him in between bites.

"Oh, thanks." He tells me as he starts clearing some plates.

"So what time do you think you'll be off?" I ask after eating some of my French fries. "I'm going to make supper for everyone as soon as Lorelai and Rory get back."

"Oh, it'll be late tonight. You three enjoy though. What are you going to make?"

I shrug. "I'm still debating. I'm going to call Rory on my way to the store and see what sounds good."

Just then a sandy blonde haired guy about 6'4" comes in and talks to Luke.

"Hey Luke…can I get an order to go for Taylor?" He asks.

"Yeah, sure."

As Luke is writing down the guy's order, I'm looking at the guy and thinking that I know him. I haven't met him on either of the 2 prior trips but I know him.

He looks over at me and nods. "Hey."

I nod back. "Hey."

After he leaves with his food, I turn back to Luke and ask him who that was.

"Oh, that's Dean."

Dean. That's right. Rory's ex-boyfriend. I remember him now. I saw him that night that Richard and Emily had their Male Yale party.

Ten minutes later, I pay my check and tell Luke that I would see him later. I drive Lorelai's jeep down the street to Doose's Market. I call Rory's phone number as I'm heading into the store.

"Hello?" She picks up on the third ring.

"Hey Ace."

"Hey honey!" She's happy; this is a good sign. "I found my wedding dress!"

"Thank God!" I exclaim. "Maybe I can get you to sleep a full 8 hours tonight."

"Maybe; we'll see."

"OK so what sounds good for supper? I'm at the store picking stuff up."

"I want steak!" I hear Lorelai say in the background.

"Yeah, steak sounds good." Rory tells me.

"OK." I nod even though I know neither one of them can see me. I grab a cart and head to the back of the store. "So have you picked out what the other dresses will be?"

"Yeah. I think mom and Lane liked them." She says.

"They're beautiful." I hear Lane comment in the background.

"And I'm sure that Gigi is going to love her dress."

I laugh. "I have no doubt. So when are you going to be home?"

"Soon. There's a couple other things that I want to do then we'll be home. I'll probably be a couple hours still."

"OK sounds good. I'm going to finish shopping."

"OK, I'll see you in a little while."

"I love you, Ace."

"I love you too Logan. Bye."

"Bye." I hang up the phone and go to the meat counter and get three sirloin steaks.

"Were you talking to Rory?" I hear someone say from behind me. I turn around after I put the steaks in the cart and see a shorter, dark haired woman wearing pigtails standing there. Her name is slipping me, though. I know she's the mechanic in town though.

"Uhh…yeah." I nod.

"Here's your hamburger, Gypsy." The meat guy says to her.

"Thanks Tom."

That's right; her name is Gypsy. She turns back to me then.

"Is it true that Rory and you are moving to California?" She asks as she's following me down one of the aisles.

"Yep, we are. We leave at the end of the week." I explain as I start to grab items to make a salad.

"Are you crazy? Do you realize just how close Lorelai and Rory are?"

I sigh. "No one knows that more than me, Gypsy."

"I bet Lorelai wants to kill you." She predicts and I tell her what I'm hoping is the truth.

"Actually she's been doing really well with it. She and Luke are helping with the move."

She's staring at me skeptically. "I don't believe you."

"That's your choice." I conclude. "I need to go though. I'm making supper for me, Rory and Lorelai." I walk away and head down a different aisle. I did peek over my shoulder real quick to make sure she wasn't still following me and she's not.

By the time I make my way to the checkout it's 20 minutes later. I'm second in line and as soon as I start to unload the cart, I notice that Dean's the cashier. I'm trying to think whether or not Rory ever mentioned that. I don't think she did.

"Hey, did you find everything OK?" He asks as he rings up my things.

"Yeah I did."

He looks up and sees me then. "Oh, you're the guy I saw at Luke's earlier. Are you new to Stars Hollow?"

"Relatively." I admit. "I've been here a couple times."

"I'm Dean Forrester." He extends his hand to me.

"Logan Huntzberger. Yeah, I have heard about you."

He looks at me confused. "You have? From who?"

"Oh, from Rory." I explain and his eyes grow wide.

"Rory? Rory Gilmore?"

I nod. "Yeah."

"Really? How do you know Rory?"

"He's marrying her." Gypsy tells him as she gets in line behind me. I sigh. I can't escape the woman apparently.

Dean looks stunned. "You're marrying Rory?"

I nod. "I am."

"You're marrying Rory Gilmore?" Dean's having some trouble comprehending this so I pull out my wallet and show him a picture of me and Rory at her Yale graduation. I had my arms wrapped around her waist and we had huge smiles on our faces.

"You do mean this Rory Gilmore, right?"

His expression goes blank and he just nods. "Yeah, that's her."

"Yeah, that's the girl I'm marrying."

"Umm…well that's great. Congratulations."

"Thanks."

"So umm…how long have you two been together?"

"Three years."

"Really? Three years. That was right around the time…"

"Don't worry." I cut in. "She didn't cheat on you. We didn't get together until a couple months after the two of you broke up."

I think he looks relieved.

"Rory wouldn't have done that to you." I tell him.

"Yeah, you're right. She wouldn't have." He nods as he finishes bagging my groceries. "That'll be $42.63."

I hand him 2 20's and a 10 and he gives me back my change.

"You seem like a nice guy, Dean." I start to tell him and Gypsy cuts me off.

"He is a nice guy just like Rory is a nice girl and this town does not want that changing when you two move to California."

Dean's eyes grow huge. "You're going to California?"

I groan. "Yes. I became partner at a company in Palo Alto. And Gypsy I have no intention of changing Rory. If anybody has changed anybody, she changed me."

"That I can believe." She remarks.

"So can I finish telling him what I was going to say?"

"Be my guest."

"I was going to say how he seemed like a nice guy and a complete 180 from Rory's other ex-boyfriend."

"Jess?" Dean asks.

I nod.

"Jess is a jackass."

"Jess is a huge jackass." Gypsy volunteers.

"I never liked him. He played a huge part in us breaking up the 2nd time."

"Yeah she said that. Quite frankly he played a huge part in us splitting up the 1st time. Anyway, I just wanted to say that it was nice to meet you."

"Yeah, it's been nice to meet you too."

I'm grabbing my bags and heading for the door when I hear him say my name.

"Yeah?" I turn around to look at him.

"Take care of her, OK?"

I nod. "I will." Then I leave and head back to Lorelai's house.

It's just after 5:30 when Lorelai and Rory come in the door.

"Hey!" Rory exclaims and runs over to me and gives me a hug and a kiss.

"Hey Ace! How did shopping go?"

"Good."

"Exhausting." Lorelai admits.

I laugh. "I bet."

"So what did you do all day?" Rory asks me as she take a seat next to me on the couch.

"Well, I made arrangements for moving and Paul Anka and I discussed who's seen Willy Wonka and Pippi Longstocking more…"

"Probably him." Lorelai admits.

"I don't know; he barked a lot so I figured he had seen them just as often as I have."

"You make it sound like I make you watch them every night." Rory groans.

"You do have to admit that we do watch them often."

She sighs. "Yeah, OK."

"Did Babette come over?" Lorelai asks.

"Yeah, she took him out when I was heading out." I look at the time. It's just after 6. "Are you hungry now or do you want to wait?"

They look at each other curiously.

"How long do you think it would take to make everything?" Rory asks.

"Well, probably about half an hour. Of course if you help me it could be sooner."

"What do you want me to do?"

"You can make the salad."

"OK." She nods as we get up. "Let's go."

"Hey do you need me to do anything?" Lorelai pipes up.

"That's OK. We've got it." I tell her.

"You sure?"

"Yeah." I smile. "Come on Ace. Let's go cook."

"We'll let you know when it's ready." Rory tells her mom.

"OK." Lorelai nods and turns her TV on.

This is going to be a good sized meal. I got sirloin steaks, potatoes for baked potatoes, French bread and the ingredients for garlic bread, the stuff for a salad and then of course, wine. I had Rory make the salad and put the garlic bread together so I could grill it.

It's just about a half hour later when I come in from outside carrying the steaks and garlic bread on a huge plate.

"Mom! Food's ready!" Rory calls to her as she takes the salad and also the bottle of red wine out of the fridge. Lorelai scans the table and her mouth drops open.

"Oh my god!" She exclaims. "Have you been cooking a feast or what?"

"Yeah, there is quite a bit of food. I admit. "I didn't realize just how much food I bought until I started cooking."

As we eat, Rory and Lorelai fill me in about their day. It sounds like it was extremely hectic but productive.

"So did you take my jeep?" Lorelai asks before taking a bite of her steak.

"Yeah, I did. It was a good thing too."

"Did you have people following you?"

I shrug. "Well, I needed it when I went to the store. I didn't have anybody following me but I had to live down the staring when I ate at Luke's."

"You're famous." Rory grins.

"Only because I'm marrying you."

"Ahh…I think it's because you're a Huntzberger. Everyone in town has met you."

"Well, not everyone. I think I met everyone today though."

"What does that mean?"

"I met your ex-boyfriend today." I reveal and she looks confused.

"Who? Jess? You've already met him, remember? He's in town?"

I'm looking at her like I'm asking if she's kidding or not. "No, your other ex-boyfriend." I correct her and her eyes grow wide. I don't think she was expecting that.

"Dean? You met Dean? Where?"

"Well, he came in and ordered food when I was at Luke's and then he was actually the cashier when I was at Doose's. I'm surprised you didn't tell me he worked there."

"I actually didn't know that he still worked there. He was actually doing a few jobs while we were dating." I think she's still in shock. "Did you tell him we're getting married?"

"Ahh…no. Gypsy actually beat me to it."

"Gypsy? Really?" Lorelai frowns.

"Yeah I think she was enjoying following me around the store."

Rory and Lorelai stifle a laugh.

"Which actually brings up a question for you, Lorelai and I really want you to be completely honest with me." I take a bite of my garlic bread.

"O-kay." She replied slowly.

"Are you dealing with this move OK?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I know it can't be easy for you but Gypsy led me to believe how you really want to kill me because I'm taking Rory away from you."

"The truth?"

"Yes please."

"I'm not thrilled about it but I don't want to kill you. Maybe if you were moving there with no clear cut objective but I know that isn't the case. You've got your job. It'll take adjusting but it's fine."

I breathe a sigh of relief.

"Was she worrying you?"

"Not while I was with her no. I just got to thinking about it now though and it made me wonder."

I look over at Rory and she's off in her own little world. I know she's more than likely thinking about Dean and that I talked to him.

"Ace...you OK?" I nudge her arm.

"Umm…yeah. I'm fine. I'm just mentally going over my checklist for the wedding."

Any other time and I might have bought this but not now. I know she's lying but I'm going to wait to bring this up until after dinner…when we're alone.

* * *

I'm so happy I found my dress! Me, Lane, and my mom are now sitting around a table looking at bridesmaids dresses. I want them knee-length or cocktail length because any longer and I just keep thinking that they won't be able to use them again.

"These are really pretty." Lane points to a page that has a couple knee-length satin dresses.

"They are." I nod.

"What kind of material are you thinking for them?" My mom asks as she turns to the next page.

"I'm thinking satin, chiffon, silk, or organza."

"No taffeta?" Lane asks.

"No taffeta." I confirm. "I don't know. When I think of taffeta I think more of prom dresses I guess."

"True. It's used a lot for them." Lane says.

It takes us around an hour before I find the bridesmaid dress. It's Wtoo Bridesmaids and is made of crinkle chiffon and has an empire waist. Both my mom and Lane think that it's really pretty. They seem to like the ruffles.

Gigi's dress is the easiest to pick out. I pick hers out in less than 10 minutes. There's not too much to her dress. It's a spaghetti strapped Alfred Angelo satin dress.

We have measurements taken before we leave the store. I need to call the other girls and let them know about getting their measurements done. I decide before leaving the city that I would take them by the church and the reception hall so that way they could see them.

Right as we pile back in my car, my phone rings. It's Logan.

"Hello?" I answer. I haven't started driving just yet.

"Hey Ace."

"Hey honey! I found my wedding dress!" I tell him happily.

"Thank god!" He responds. "Maybe I can get you to sleep a full 8 hours tonight."

I smirk. "Maybe; we'll see." What he doesn't realize is that I'll probably be researching something else after he goes to sleep.

"OK so what sounds good for supper? I'm at the store picking stuff up."

Before I could even voice an opinion, my mom does. I didn't even know she could hear him talking. "I want steak!"

I then agree. "Yeah, steak sounds good."

"OK. So have you picked what the other dresses will be?"

"Yeah. I think my mom and Lane liked them."

"They're beautiful." Lane tells him.

"And I'm sure Gigi is going to love her dress."

He starts to laugh. "I have no doubt. So when are you going to be home?"

"Soon. There's a couple of things I want to do then we'll be home. It'll probably be a couple hours still."

"OK sounds good. I'm going to finish shopping."

"OK, I'll see you in a little while."

"I love you, Ace."

"I love you too Logan. Bye."

"Bye."

I hang up the phone and head for the church.

"So is he going to make steaks?" My mom asks.

I shrug. "Yeah, it sounds like it."

"Wow! Logan cooks?" Logan exclaims and I smile.

"He's actually a very good cook." I inform her. "He made paella the first time he came to Stars Hollow."

"Impressive."

I frown. "Doesn't Zach cook?"

"Umm…not really. Although he is pretty good at heating up Hot Pockets."

I laugh.

Ten minutes later, we pull in front of Saint Paul's Chapel. I ask them if they had heard the story behind the church and neither one had. I tell what happened with the church during the 9/11 attacks and they seem fascinated by it.

I take them to the Gotham Hall after the church and they seems just as in awe as I was when I first saw it. Of course now looking around, it reminds me how I need to come up with my guest list. Actually Logan needs to make his too. Oh, God there's still so much to do!

I drop Lane off at her apartment and pull into our driveway at 5:30. I sigh as I get out of the car. What a tiring day! I am curious how Logan spent his day though.

"Hey!" I run to him as soon as I open the door. I give him a huge hug and kiss.

"Hey Ace! How did shopping go?"

"Good."

"Exhausting." My mom confesses and Logan laughs.

"I bet."

"So what did you do all day?" I ask as I sit down next to him.

"Well, I made arrangements for moving and Paul Anka and I discussed who's seen Willy Wonka and Pippi Longstocking more…"

"Probably him." My mom interjects.

"I don't know; he barked a lot so I figured he had seen them just as often as I have."

"You make it sound like I make you watch them every night." I grumble.

"You do have to admit that we do watch them often." He points out.

"Yeah, OK."

"Did Babette come over?" My mom asks as she takes a seat in the nearby chair.

"Yeah she took him out as I was heading out." Logan explains as he look over at the clock. "Are you hungry now and do you want to wait?"

Mom and I just give each other a look so I ask. "How long do you think it would take to make everything?"

"Well, probably about half an hour. Of course if you help me it could be sooner."

"What do you want me to do?" I ask.

"You can make the salad." He tells me as he stands up so I quickly follow.

"OK. Let's go."

"Hey do you need me to do anything?" Mom asks.

"That's OK." Logan replies. "We've got it."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Come on Ace. Let's go cook."

"We'll let you know when it's ready." I tell mom and she says OK.

"OK everything is in the fridge for the salad and then after that if you would butter the French bread and I'll grill it."

"Sounds good." I nod. "Is it going to be garlic bread?"

"Yeah. I actually went ahead and made a small dish of garlic butter so all you need to do is butter the bread."

"Thank you Logan."

"You're welcome, Ace. Thank you for helping me make supper. I'm sure you're pretty beat."

"I am but I'm happy to help you out."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Logan heads outside with the steaks. It doesn't take long to do my jobs. It's two of the tasks I normally do when we make supper. A few minutes later, I take the bread out to him. He thanks me as he makes room on the grill for it.

"So what else did you do today?" He asks me once he closes the grill.

"Well, the majority of it was seriously spent dress shopping but I decided to take mom and Lane to see the church and also the Gotham Hall."

"Really?" He raises an eyebrow. "What did they think?"

"Oh, I think they really liked them."

"That's great. Did you do anything else?"

"Honestly no. I mean, we ate, did the dresses, and we went by the church and hall and came back."

"So the dresses must have taken a long time. How many did you try on."

"Six."

"Just 6?"

I frown. "Yeah, just 6. Why?"

"I just thought it may have taken you trying on every dress in the store before you decided." He teases.

"We each grabbed a couple. The dress I ended up getting was the last one I tried on."

"Who picked it out?"

"I think I did. It's been such a long day I can't even remember." I admit.

We come back in fifteen minutes later and I call to my mom that the food is ready. I grab the salad and the wine from the fridge as Logan puts the steaks and the garlic bread on the table. I see him open the oven and bring out 3 baked potatoes. It's insane the amount that Logan made.

"Oh my god!" Mom gasps. "Have you been cooking a feast or what?"

"Yeah there is quite a bit of food." Logan acknowledges. "I didn't realize just how much food I bought until I started cooking."

I pour each of us a glass of wine as we all take a seat around the table.

We talk about New York and my mom gushes about the church and Gotham Hall but also make sure to mention how much of a perfectionist I am when it came to the dresses.

"Excuse me, this is my wedding…"

Logan clears his throat.

"Sorry, **our **wedding," I correct myself, "And I only plan to get married once. Yes, I'm going to be picky."

"So did you take my jeep?" Mom asks as she eats her steak.

"Yeah, I did. It was a good thing I did too." Logan admits.

"Did you have people following you?"

He's hesitating. "Well, I needed it when I went to the store. I didn't have anybody following me but I had to live down the staring when I ate at Luke's."

I smirk. "You're famous."

"Only because I'm marrying you."

I'm quick to disagree. "Ahh…I think it's because you're a Huntzberger. Everyone in town has met you." I remind him.

"Well, not everyone. I think I met everyone today though."

OK so that was like a riddle. "What does that mean?"

"I met your ex-boyfriend today." He tells me and I'm lost. He's already met Jess and I remind him of that. He's giving the most bizarre look now.

"No, your other ex-boyfriend." He reveals and time is now officially standing still.

"Dean? You met Dean? Where?" My mind is officially spinning.

"Well, he came in and ordered food when I was at Luke's then he was actually the cashier when I was at Doose's. I'm surprised you didn't tell me worked there."

"I actually didn't know he still worked there." I tell him honestly. The last time I talked to him was the night of my grandparents Male Yale party. "He was actually doing a few jobs when we were dating. Did you tell him we're getting married?"

"Ahh…no. Gypsy actually beat me to it."

"Gypsy? Really?" Mom looks surprised.

"Yeah, I think she enjoyed following me around the store."

I manage to sustain a chuckle but I'm still distracted. My mind is currently on Dean and what his reaction to the news was. I know it's probably stupid to even worry about it. I mean, we haven't been together for a really long time and I really do love Logan.

"Ace…you OK?" I come out of my funk when I feel Logan nudge me.

"Umm…yeah, I'm fine. I'm just mentally going over my checklist for the wedding."

He just nods at me but doesn't say anything.

Half an hour later, we've finished eating and I'm getting ready to wash the dishes. The food was amazing! I'm so happy I'm marrying a man that knows how to cook. Logan's clearing the table and handing the plates as I put them in the sink.

"That was an incredible dinner, Logan. You made entirely too much but it was great."

"Well, thank you Ace." He gives me a quick kiss. "Yeah, I'll think twice about the amount of food next time."

I laugh and start washing the dishes. A few moments later, I look at him and he's giving me this solemn look. "Something wrong?" I ask.

"Come sit down for a minute. Let's talk."

I wipe my hands on a towel and take a seat next to him. "What do you want to talk about?"

"I think you know."

"What?"

"Let's talk about Dean."

"What about him?"

"Rory, I saw the look on your face when I mentioned how I had met him…"

I cut him off. "What look?"

"Like panic."

"Logan…" I start.

"No, it's OK, Rory. I remember the night you two broke up."

"You mean the party from hell?" I groan.

He laughs. "Come on, it wasn't all bad. We had fun at the sub-party."

I smile. "Yeah, we did. You got me drunk."

"That was the night that I found out that you did know how to let loose even though you very rarely showed it."

I nod. "True. My whole life changed that year."

"Yeah, it did but we're getting off course here. My point is I was there the night you broke up and things were left unresolved."

"Unresolved?" I frown.

"Rory, I'm sure you still have feelings for the guy."

"Of course I don't!" I protest. "I love you remember?"

He smirks at me. "Ace, I never said they were romantic feelings however thank you for the reassurement that you still love me. I want you to go resolve this."

"What?" My eyes grow wide.

"I think you should go and talk to him."

"Why?"

"Because it's going to bother you until you do. Seriously go talk to him. I'll finish doing the dishes."

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely." He grins. "Go ahead."

I give him a quick kiss and tell him that I'll be back soon.

I grab my purse and head to my car. By now it's 8:30 and Doose's is closed. I still try my luck there though. If he's not there, I'll try his parent's house. I'm really shocked that Logan wants me to do this. He is right though. It would just gnaw away at me until I said something.

I park in front of the store window and I see him standing behind the register and clearing the till out. I tap on the window and he looks up. I give him a small wave and he comes to open the door.

"Hi." He says.

"Hey." I reply and give him a small smile. "Can I come in?"

"Umm…yeah. Taylor's already left for the night. He'd have a fit about this if he was here."

"I won't tell him if you won't." I grin.

"You've got a deal."

"So how are you?" I ask him.

"I'm doing OK." He tells me. "I'd ask how you are but I got a pretty good indication of it from your fiancé."

I blush, unsure of what to say.

"Congratulations on getting engaged."

"Thanks."

"He seems like a nice guy. Logan."

"He is." I tell him. "He's a really nice guy."

"He seems like a step up from Jess."

I frown. "Seriously after all this time, we're still here?"

He shakes his head. "No, we're not. So umm…when's the wedding?"

"October. 20th."

"Wow!"

"Yeah, it's creeping up fast." I admit.

"And Gypsy said you're moving?"

I nod. "Yeah, to California. Logan got made partner at an internet company out there and he'll be the VP over multimedia."

"Wow! That's incredible."

"Yeah, I'm really proud of him." I admit. "He's been doing really good since he left his father's company."

"Who's his father?"

"Mitchum Huntzberger."

"Mitchum Huntzberger, the newspaper mogul?" His eyes grow wide.

"One and the same." I smile tightly.

He smirks. "What's with that look?"

I shrug. "It's nothing."

"I'm really happy that things are going so well for you, Rory." He smiles at me.

"Thank you. So tell me about you. How are things going for you?"

"Things are good." He nods. "I've been working for Taylor full time and Tom still calls if he needs help."

"That's great. So do you have a girlfriend? Fiancee?" He's awfully quiet so I decide to throw in the last option. "Wife?"

He's quick to jump in now. "No, no, umm…no wife. Yeah, there's a girl I've been seeing for a few months now."

"Well, that's great." I offer.

"Yeah, it is great. She's great."

"I'm really happy for you."

"Thanks." He's starting to hesitate. "Rory?"

"Yeah?"

"Does Logan know you're here?"

I nod. "He knows. He's had some background on our relationship."

"Yeah, he said you've talked about me." He offers.

"While that's true, he was also there the night we broke up. He knew the way things ended."

"He was there?"

I nod. "Yeah, he was 1 of the like 3 guys I actually knew. I knew him from the newspaper. Anyway, when he told me that he met you, I was stunned. And then he mentioned how Gypsy told you that Logan and I were getting married and my mind flashbacked to when you told me you and Lindsay were getting married. I just wanted to make sure that you were OK."

"Of course I'm OK." He gives a small smile. "Yeah, it was a shock but it's been a long time since we've been together."

"It has." I agree.

"Look, Rory, all I care about is that you're happy. You look happy. You look like you're glowing actually."

I laugh. "Yeah, I actually am."

"That's all that matters to me."

"I want you to be happy too, Dean."

"I am, considering I'm still in Stars Hollow."

"I think you're doing just fine even if you are in Stars Hollow."

"Thanks."

"OK, well, I better go."

"Yeah, OK."

I give him a quick hug. "Take care of yourself, OK?"

"You too. Congratulations again."

"Thanks." I wave to him as I leave Doose's. It's about 9:30 when I get back home. I walk in and see Logan typing on my laptop.

"Hey." I throw my keys down on the counter.

"Hey." He pulls me into his lap and gives me a kiss. "So how did that go?"

"Good." I nod. "It was good to see him."

"That's good."

I study him carefully and confess. "Wow! You have really grown up since you met Jess."

"What does that mean?"

"I'm half expecting you to be jealous here." I admit.

"Do I have any reason to be?"

"Of course not."

"That's right; I don't. I know you love me. I wanted you to do this for you."

"Well, thank you. I'm glad I did." I smile. "What are you doing?" I ask as I stare at the computer screen.

"Just Im'ing Colin and Finn about the move."

"Oh, OK. I'm heading to bed." I tell him casually.

"Already?" He raises an eyebrow.

"I never said I was planning on sleeping." My eyes have a little bit of a twinkle to them.

Before I even finish that sentence, Logan follows me into my room and swings the door shut and locks it.

* * *

**OK super long chapter people. I hope it was worth it. I kind of felt like when Rory and Dean broke up, it was really abrupt. I wanted to bring him back and like I said at the beginning of the chapter it's only for this chapter. Before you ask, I'm not even going to try to bring Jess back. Now I've been trying to decide what the next chapter is going to be about. It'll be about the move in the beginning and I might not cover a lot on it. I'm still not committing to a timeframe here other than getting it done as soon as I can. Anyway, remember to review! I got 14 reviews on the last chapter so I'm really curious of what your reaction to this chapter is**.


	16. California Living

**OK so it's been a long 5 weeks and I really do apologize that it took me this long to get this chapter out but honestly, it was not an easy chapter to write. In fact, this is what my 5 weeks were like: The first 3 weeks I finished chapter 22 and did chapters 23, 24, 25 and started on 26 and the last two were spent writing this chapter. That's how long I had writer's block. And it took 3 rewrites before I was satisifed with it. It wasn't my favorite chapter; the next chapter will be better. Still review please. So I now have it figured there will be three more chapters before the wedding. Hope you like it.

* * *

**

**Palo Alto, CA**

**Sunday, 11 am**

OK so this has been an exhausting road trip. Like almost three solid days of driving. Well, maybe two and a half but still. We had to survive through the heat and the torrential storms throughout the Midwest. I'm so glad I don't live there. Logan and I took turns driving my Prius throughout the trip. My car pulled like a U-Haul trailer behind it. Mom and Luke took a big U-Haul truck and so did Finn, Colin, and Steph. God, I can't wait to sleep in my bed tonight.

With all their help, Logan and I decided to put everyone up in the hotel we stayed in when we visited. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to all of them. We also got them tickets to fly back first class on us. They should only have to endure that road trip once.

I park the car in front of the house and let out an exhausting sigh. Logan starts to laugh at me.

"Quit it, Huntzberger. It's been a long, tiring road trip."

"I'm not going to disagree with you." He admits. "I just think you're doing that prematurely considering that we haven't moved anything in yet."

I let out another strangled sigh and Logan's dying laughing. We all get out of the vehicles and stretch.

"Thank God we're here!" Finn exclaims.

"My sentiments exactly." I reply.

With everyone helping, it takes us about 4 hours to move everything in. Everything is still in disarray but the major furniture is where it should be. I can spend the next week putting all of the boxes away. You know in between doing more wedding planning. Logan's main focus needs to be on work right now. He has to be there at 9am tomorrow. I'm pretty sure that it's going to be a short night. He'll be needing his sleep. After the last few days, we both need it.

None of us are in the mood to go out to eat so we decide to order in pizza for everyone. The pizza place is right down the road from our house so Logan goes and picks it up. We could always have it delivered but it's just as easy to pick it up. Quite frankly it's also going to be hotter, I'm sure.

Just as Logan is getting ready to leave to go pick up the pizza, Finn's phone rings.

"Hello?" Finn answers then breaks out into a huge grin. "Oh, hello darling. How are you?"

Me, Logan, Colin, and Steph all share a look and watch him move about the living room.

"I'm going to go get the pizza." Logan whispers to me. "When I get back, I want to know who he was talking to."

I nod and give him a kiss.

We watch eagerly and listen as Finn talks to this mystery girl.

"Do we have a clue who he's talking to?" I ask Colin and Steph.

They shake their heads.

"Of course, I'd love to see you, darling. I'll be back in New York tomorrow night."

"So it's one of the New York girls." I conclude.

"That means it's one of possibly 125 girls." Colin jokes.

"I'd be back sooner but the earliest flight is at noon. Would you like me to call you as soon as I get into town? Of course, darling. OK, I'll see you tomorrow. Bye."

Finn hangs up and turns around and sees all of our amused faces. "What?"

"So who is she?" Steph asks.

"Just one of the lovely ladies I met on our road trip."

"Ooo…he's being vague." Colin teases. "He must really like her."

"Grow up, Colin." Finn groans.

"Finn, what's the big deal?" I ask him. "We're your friends, remember?"

"Of course, darling. I just don't feel like talking about her right now."

"OK." I nod. "Keep in mind though that as soon as Logan comes back, he's going to be hounding you to know who it was."

"I know but that doesn't mean I'm going to tell him."

The rest of the night is spent trying to get Finn to tell us who his mystery girl is. Amazingly he keeps mum for the duration. This only heightens our curiosity even more.

Everyone leaves our house around 10. I have finished unpacking everything we will immediately within the next 24 hours but nothing else. As soon as we finish assembling our bed, we collapse on it. We haven't even put the sheets on yet.

"Oh God…" I groan. "My body is going to hurt like hell tomorrow."

"Hey, at least you have the option to stay in bed all day tomorrow if you want." He tells me.

"I could but we both know that's not going to happen. Not in between unpacking and planning the wedding." I inform him.

"One day at a time, Ace."

I sit up. "I know, I know." I look around the room. "We should find our bed stuff so we can go to sleep."

"That's a good idea."

It takes us about 15 minutes to find our bed stuff and make it. It's just before 11 when we crawl into bed. Every bone in my body aches! I'm half dozing off when a realization pops into my head.

"Logan…"

"Yeah?"

"You do realize that we currently only have one vehicle."

He yawns. "Yeah, I know. I talked to Scott while I was getting pizza. He's having a rental car brought here tomorrow morning."

"Really?"

"Yeah, it should be here around 8. He knows we just got here so we haven't had time to look or get another one yet."

"We should probably do that soon."

"I'm thinking next weekend."

"Sounds good. You better go to sleep. You have to get up early."

"Goodnight Ace."

"Goodnight Logan."

He leans over and kisses me and if either of had more energy, it could have easily led to sex but we don't. We both crash and are up by 7:30. While he's getting ready for work, I change into my old Yale t-shirt and shorts. My body is starting to feel a little bit better now that I've got some Tylenol in me.

"Do you want to meet me for lunch?" Logan asks me. He's in the shower and I'm throwing my hair up into a ponytail.

"What time?"

"Well, how about 1? I'm not sure how the interviews are going to go so I figured I'd take a later lunch."

"Sure." I nod. "That's fine."

"Are you going to spend the day unpacking?" He asks as he turns the water off.

"Well, probably the morning yeah. After I have lunch with you I'm going to more than likely go grocery shopping and then come back and do wedding planning."

"I mean it Rory. I want you taking this one day at time. You need to pace yourself."

"I know Logan." I groan as I see his hand peek out from behind the shower door looking for a towel on the rack. I forgot to unpack those last night.

"Where's the towel?"

"I'm looking." I tell him as I search the boxes.

"Knowing it and doing it are two separate things, Ace."

"Logan, I'm not trying to get overwhelmed here." I inform him as I find a towel and hand it to him. "But the fact is, there's 138 days left…"

He cuts me off. "You're already counting?" He realizes as he steps out of the shower.

"You're actually surprised by that?" I raise an eyebrow.

He sighs. "No, not really. Just tell me something"

"What?"

"Why are you so reluctant to use the wedding planner?"

"Because I'd rather do it."

"OK then let's throw out a scenario. Let's say you get a job at one of the newspapers and you're working 8 or 9 hours a day. Then what happens?"

I frown. OK so I see his point. "Fine. Point taken. That doesn't mean I'm not going to plan any of it."

"Understood but quit thinking you're Superwoman, OK?"

"OK." I tell him then head downstairs to start unpacking. I dive into one of the boxes marked miscellaneous. It's the box that has my laptop in it. I did open it last night, mainly because it's the box that also held my digital camera. We took a bunch of pictures last night when we got here. I hook it up to my laptop and download the pictures.

Logan comes down about 10 minutes later dressed in a navy suit and navy tie. So glad that never got wrinkled in the garment bag because I have no clue where the iron is.

"Hey…" He looks over my shoulder. "What are you doing?"

"Downloading the pictures from last night." I tell him.

"That's a lot of pictures." He muses.

"It's our first house, Logan. I wanted to make sure to commemorate it."

"I'll have to look at them when I get home." He tells me. "I better get going."

"Aren't you going to eat something?"

"Like what? I think the only thing we currently have in the house to eat is leftover pizza."

I get up and go to the cabinet by the stove and find the strawberry pop-tarts we had been eating for breakfast on the road trip. I grab one from the box and toss it to him.

"I'll go shopping later but for now this will have to do."

"Thanks. I better go." He comes over and gives me a quick kiss. "I'll see you around 1 then?"

I nod. "I'll be there."

He gives me another quick kiss then grabs the rental car keys off the counter and leaves. The car rental guy dropped the keys off about 5 minutes before Logan came downstairs.

I bring up my Facebook page. It's time to update my picture. I get in and start to review my information. I have my name as Rory Gilmore but I did try to squeeze in soon to be Huntzberger but it didn't work. I have my full birthday in and a couple weeks ago when we got to New York, I got the chance to update my marital status to engaged to Logan Huntzberger. I forgot to update my location though. I quickly update it to Palo Alto, CA. I sort through my pictures and decide on one of us standing in front of the house. We have our sunglasses on and Logan's got his arm around my shoulders and I have mine wrapped around his waist. We have huge grins plastered on our faces. I really should update my banner too:

**Rory Gilmore- I've been waving my magic wand to have all of our boxes unpacked and put away. The damn thing must be broken…**

I then head into the bathroom to finish unpacking and after the bathroom is done, I unpack the kitchen. The next time I check the time, it's quarter to 12. I quick check my Facebook page. I did get a couple responses from Lane and my mom. I'm surprised to see my mom was on.

**Lane Kim VanGerbig- I lost my magic wand as soon as the twins were born. Wish I knew where the hell I put it.**

**Lorelai Gilmore- Ror, did you want me to stay another day and help you unpack? Luke has to get back but I can stay.**

**Rory Gilmore- Thanks mom but I'm OK. I've already got the kitchen and the bathroom done. When I get back from lunch with Logan I'm going to unpack our bedroom.**

I head into the bathroom to take a shower to get ready for lunch. My shower takes 20 minutes and by the time I finish doing my hair and getting dressed it's 12:30. I decide to put on a sleeveless black dress and heels. I put my hair up into a French Twist. I keep the jewelry to a minimum though.

I go downstairs and check my Facebook page one last time. I'm shocked to see the next comment. It's from Logan. When the hell did he have time to go on Facebook between doing interviews?

**Logan Huntzberger- Bravo Ace! Guess this means you won't need my help later, right?**

**Rory Gilmore- I left the really big stuff for you. **** C U soon**

I close my laptop and grab my keys from the counter and lock up. Logan's work is just straight down the road like 4 miles. I make a couple of right turns and park near the front. There are a lot of cars here though. I'm about 100 feet from the entrance when I hear someone call my name. I turn around and see Scott making his way to me.

"Hi Scott." I shake his hand. "How are you?"

"Good. How are you? How did moving go?"

"I'm kind of exhausted." I admit. "We did have a lot of people helping us so we were very fortunate. I've also made a dent in unpacking."

"That's great." He tells me. "Is Logan taking you to lunch?"

I nod. "Yes and it's well needed right now. I need a break from unpacking." We walk in and the waiting room is flooded with people. "Scott?"

He turns to me. "Yeah?"

"Are you sure you want Logan to leave? We don't have to go to lunch."

He shakes his head. "Nonsense. We're each taking turns for lunch. I'm just coming back from mine. I'll let him know you're here."

I nod and take a seat on the couch and cross one leg over the other. I watch him go knock on a meeting room door. He closes the door a moment later and turns back to me. "He should be out shortly, Rory. He had just wrapped up an interview."

"Thank you Scott." I smile at him. I glance around the room and notice that everyone is staring at me. I smile politely at them and watch the meeting room door. I then look around the waiting room again. Most of the applicants are guys but there are a few girls. I still have some of the guys kind of leering at me which is starting to make me feel very self-conscious.

_Come on Logan_ I silently plead to the door.

"So how long have you been waiting?" I see a long, blonde haired girl ask a short dark brunette haired girl.

"Over an hour." The dark hair girl sighs. "You?"

"Like an hour and 15 minutes." They look over at me then.

"So what job are you interviewing for?" The blonde asks me.

"Oh, I'm not interviewing today; I actually had my interview a couple weeks ago." I tell them. OK so that's a lie; it wasn't a true interview. They don't need to know that, though.

"Really what did you interview for?" The brunette asks.

"The editor in chief for the online magazine."

"Really?" The blonde looks shocked. "Did you get it?"

I nod. "Yes, actually I did. The job is mine if I want it."

"Who did you interview with?" The brunette asks. "I hope I get him."

"Scott. The guy that I was talking to when I came in."

"Oh sure." The blonde nods and then says something that shocks me. "He's really good looking. Maybe I can flirt with him to get a job here."

My face grows expressionless. Did she really just say that?

"Is that what you did during yours?"

My mouth drops open. "Of course not! The man is married!" I exclaim. I can't believe her! Logan needs to hurry the hell up. Maybe a text message will speed the process up.

**Hey, I need u 2 get out here now!**

"Yeah, they all are." The blonde sighs.

"The blonde guy's not." The brunette chimes in and my eyes narrow. I hear my phone beep so I look down.

**B out in a minute**

"He's not?" The blonde asks.

"Nope. He's not wearing a ring. You can always try your luck with him." The brunette answers.

I'm fuming internally now.

**No, now Logan! I'm sitting by girls who think they can flirt w/u 2 get a job!**

"It won't work." I inform them.

"And how do you know?" The blonde demands.

Just then Logan comes out. He's got a huge grin on his face. "Hey Ace."

"Hey honey." I wrap my arms around him and give him a hug and a kiss.

He looks me up and down and grins. "Did you dress up for me?"

"Of course I did."

"Ready to go to lunch?"

I grin. "Absolutely."

"OK, I'll be back in one minute." He informs me as he shows me a stack of folders. "I need to take these to Scott."

"OK." I nod and watch him walk away. I then turn back to the girls who are staring at me in shock. "We haven't been formally introduced." I tell them. "I'm Rory Gilmore, the blonde guy's fiancée. That's how I know it won't work. I'd come up with a different strategy because if anything Logan's now informing his partners of your plan."

"You think you're better than us?" The blonde snips. "The only reason you got your job is because of him."

I remain as calm as I can but I'd really like do something to her. "Actually, I got my job offer because of my writing tenure. I was a writer for the Yale Daily News all 4 years and actually I was editor in chief for the last 2 of them. I actually know a thing or two about the job."

"Hey, ready to go, Ace?" Logan asks as when he comes back a moment later.

"Yeah." I look back at the girls. "Good luck ladies."

Logan leads me out to the parking lot and to his rental car which is a 2007 Maroon Chevy Malibu. He opens the passenger door for me, lets me get in, and closes it. He climbs in the driver's side.

"You OK?" He asks me.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I smile at him.

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"OK. So what are you in the mood for food-wise?"

I shrug. "Completely up to you."

"How about Italian?"

"OK, that sounds good."

Logan drives us to a small Italian restaurant about a mile from his work. The lunch rush is pretty much over; there's less than 2 handfuls of people inside. We get seated in a booth in the back of the restaurant. The waiter comes to take our drink orders as we look over our menus.

"So what do you think you're going to have?" He asks me.

"I'm thinking spaghetti. You?"

"I'll probably get the lasagna." The waiter comes back a few minutes later and takes our orders and tells us he'll be bringing breadsticks out shortly for us.

I take a drink of Coke and wait for the breadsticks to arrive.

"Tell me what's wrong Rory."

"I'm fine, Logan." I tell him as I grab one of the breadsticks that were just brought and take a bite out of it.

"Don't lie to me, Rory."

I sigh. "I just can't believe those girls would sink that low to get jobs."

"I can." Logan confesses. "That tactic isn't going to get them anywhere though."

"That's good to know."

Logan looks at me curiously. "Ace, you do trust me, don't you?"

"Of course I do." I quickly reply. "I wouldn't be marrying you if I didn't trust you."

"That's what I thought. Rory you really don't have to worry. You're the only one that I want. Even if I had done their interviews, they wouldn't have gotten past the 1st round."

"Did you tell Scott what I said?"

He nods. "Yeah I mentioned it to him."

"Good." I smile. "Now answer me a question."

"Sure. What's that?"

"How were you on Facebook when you were supposed to be doing interviews?"

"I took a quick break and just checked to see what picture you posted."

"So how many interviews have you done?"

"Like 10."

"Anybody you like to come back for another interview?"

"About half of them."

"Well, that's good." I tell him positively.

"It is yeah."

"Are interviews going to take all week?" I ask as I finish my breadstick.

"Yeah, probably until Thursday. Friday is going to be spent reviewing and seeing who to bring back for a 2nd interview. Those will be next week."

"I'm kind of surprised that you all are doing the interviews."

"Why's that?"

"I figured that the HR people would be doing them."

"Well, Scott wants us interviewing the higher up people He does have the HR people hiring everyone else."

"Ahh…" I nod. "I get it."

"Let's get off work. How's unpacking going?"

"Good. When you get home, we'll tackle the living room. After I get back from getting groceries I'm going to get our bedroom stuff unpacked." I explain as the waiter brings our food.

"Sounds good." Logan nods as he takes a bite of his lasagna. "This is really good. How's yours?"

I tell him it's yummy and ask him if he wants to try some. I let him try mine and he lets me try his.

"That is really good." I concur.

"Their sauce has a kick to it." He concludes.

"You don't like it?"

"No, no, it's great. I'm kind of curious what they put in it though."

We get done eating by 10 to 2 and head back to Logan's work. That was a really great lunch. Now it's time for me to go work it off with grocery shopping.

"OK. I should be back somewhere between 5:30 and 6." Logan tells me as he walks me to my car.

"Sounds good."

He leans in and gives me a long kiss. "I better go."

I nod and smile.

"I love you." He grins at me.

"I love you too, Logan."

"Bye Ace."

It takes me over an hour to get groceries and another 15 minutes to unload them all into the house. It cost a pretty penny too. It's just after 4 when I get everything put away. I head upstairs and plop down on the bed. God, I'm tired! I didn't think that grocery shopping would wipe me out so bad. The next thing I know Logan's waking me up. I didn't even realize that I had dozed off.

"What time is it?" I ask him as I sit up.

"About 20 to 6." He tells me. "How long have you been asleep?"

"Umm…since just after 4 I guess. I came up to unpack the bedroom and the next thing I know you're waking me up. Just get off work?"

He nods. "Yeah. Hey, I'll change and we'll tackle the living room."

"OK." I yawn then look at myself. "Yeah I need to change too." I get back into my old Yale clothes. It takes us a few minutes to find Logan's gym clothes.

Unpacking the living room takes around an hour and a half and the bedroom takes another 45 minutes. It may not have taken so long except for while unpacking I tend to reminisce. I pull out our collage of pictures and stare at it.

Logan sits down next to me on the bed. "You're going to need a bigger picture collage frame." He informs me as he takes it and nails it to the wall above our dresser.

"You think so?"

"Of course. I mean we have the engagement picture and wedding pictures to think about."

"True. We do."

"So we need to look for a bigger frame."

"We can always add it to the gift registry." I suggest.

"Not a bad idea." He grins at me as he glances around. "It looks pretty good."

"It does. I'm so happy everything's unpacked."

"Me too."

I take my ponytail out and groan. "I'm all grimy again." I complain. "I probably should have waited to take that shower."

"Hey, I took a shower earlier, too." He reminds me as he sits back down on the bed. "I'm just as grimy as you are."

"True. You want the shower first or are you going to let me have it?"

"How about…" He pulls me over to him. "we take one together?" He leans in and kisses me.

"Seriously?" I grin at him.

"Why not? A great way to conserve water, you know?"

"Yeah, it is. I'll be in a just a minute." I tell him. He nods and heads into our master bathroom to run the water.

I open my laptop that's currently residing on our bed. I had brought it upstairs after we got done unpacking the living room. I decide to update my banner on my Facebook page.

**Rory Gilmore- I'm so happy everything got unpacked. Now I can focus on my job search and wedding planning. 138 days people! **

"Ace!" I hear Logan yell to me. "Get your ass in here now!"

I laugh. "I'm coming, I'm coming." I close my laptop and head into the bathroom to conserve water with my future husband.

**2 ****½**** Months Later**

We're at 63 days and counting until the wedding and I'm…somewhat OK. I'm not overly stressed out about the wedding which I know Logan is breathing a sigh of relief over. Everything is on schedule…with a little help from the wedding planner. Her participation has been limited though. The only thing that has gotten me down is the fact that the job market sucks. It's like no one is hiring. I got all of these 'we'll keep your resume on file' responses. After the first month of not getting hired for anything, I got to believing I was being cursed. It had taken a toll on me for awhile. Logan tried to cheer me up but it was going to take something more than just his reassurement to keep me happy. So I had to take matter into my own hands and I made a pro/con list. I had the editor in chief on one side and Stanford for grad school on the other side. It was going to be one or the other because I refuse to sit around and twiddle my thumbs all day.

It actually turned out to be the lengthiest list I've ever done; about twice the size of Logan's marriage proposal list. Until this list, that one was the lengthiest one I had done. In the end, the job won out. The biggest con though is the thought of Logan being my boss. Don't get me wrong; I love him with all of my heart and I'm sure he's an excellent boss but the fact is, we're getting married and I'm worried whether that's going to put stress on it. It's the last thing I want.

So back to the wedding. Everything is on schedule. We had our engagement pictures done just about 2 months ago. We just got them like 3 weeks ago. They turned out gorgeous. There were 8 different poses we did and we picked out 4 of them to send out to friends and family. We got to keep the proofs for all of them though. We got them done in New York City mainly because it's easier using the same photographer for all of our photos.

The invitations went out about 10 days ago…with the exception of 2 of them. Logan, just like I suspected he would be, was very adamant that the invitations for his parents and his grandpa could be done and addressed but they weren't to be sent out until he had given the OK. So far we haven't heard from them since those drinks from hell. I'm hoping that we can still call a truce but I don't think that Logan has hope for that.

It's 3 o'clock on a mid-August afternoon and I'm in our living room drinking a Coke and doing what I've been doing for the last 2 weeks: looking at real estate on my laptop. Condos, in particular. I'm going to find us an amazing condo. Don't get me wrong; I love the house. It's great. We've been eating guacamole at least once a week but I want to be an owner.

I find this amazing condo in the One Rincon Hill building. It's got the most beautiful views of the Bay Bridge and downtown San Francisco.

I hear a knock on the door and frown. I'm trying to figure out who would be here now. I look out the living room window to peek at who's here. My mouth nearly hits the floor. I trudge over to the door and swing it open.

"Hello Rory."

"Hello Mitchum, Shira."

* * *

**OK so everyone can now figure what the next chapter will be about. Like I said, three chapters until the wedding. Sixteen will be Mitchum and Shira, Seventeen is the condo search, and Eighteen will be a double chapter with the bachelor/bachelorette parties. That is the way it is currently figured. I also have a surprise that will happen at the end of the next chapter. Anyway, I'm really sorry you had to wait so long. A couple notes, one I can make the comment about the midwest mainly because I live in Nebraska and Nebraska, in June, is flood month. Almost every single June there's a flood in my hometown. Two, the reality is the guys would not be doing the interviews the first round. Normally HR does and if you get lucky enough to get a 2nd interview, then maybe you'd get one of them. I know the reality but you know what? This chapter took so many times to rewrite and I just left it the way it is. The scene with Rory and the girls? It was originally written with her and a guy talking but I didn't like the way it was. Anyway, sorry you had to wait again but I don't think that you'll have to wait as long for the next one. Remember to review!**


	17. Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa

**OK so the good news was that you didn't have to wait 5 weeks for it. It still took three weeks and I'm sorry. You'll notice as far as the points of views here it opens with Rory's POV and the majority of it is from Logan's though. Rory ends the chapter though. This was a little tough to write. In fact, it may be a little OOC here too. Out of the two of them, Mitchum does most of the talking. I did the best I could writing them. Anyway, read and review please! I'm really going to want reviews here and I'll explain why at the end of the chapter. Hope you like it!**

"Hello Rory."

I stand in front of the entrance blocking it. My face is expressionless.

"Hello Mitchum, Shira." I state politely.

"Can we come in?" He asks.

I reluctantly move back to let them in. "Logan's still at work." I tell them as I close the door and lead them into the living room.

"That's OK." He tells me. "This will give us a chance to talk."

"Yes, I realize it would but I'm sure that Logan would like to be here for this."

"Call him if you like." Mitchum suggests and I decide to do just that.

I head into our bedroom and shut the door. I punch in #4 on the phone which is the speed dial for Logan's office.

"Excursion Media, Logan Huntzberger's office." I hear his secretary answer.

"Hi Nicole, this is Rory."

"Hi Rory!" She replies cheerfully. "How are you?"

"I'm doing good. Listen is Logan busy?"

"Actually he is. He, Scott, and Mark have been in a meeting pretty much all day."

I sigh. I hate to do this but he should know. "Look, would you tell him that I'm on the phone and that I need to talk to him?"

"Sure. I'll see what I can do." She puts me on hold and I tap my fingers on the nightstand while I wait.

Nicole comes back a minute later. "Rory, he says he'll call you back as soon as he gets a second."

OK. So that's not good enough. I tell her that she needs to tell him it's urgent. She puts me on hold again and within 30 seconds, I'm being transferred through to Logan.

"Rory, I'm in the middle of an important meeting." He tells me. "Can't this wait?"

"No, Logan, it can't. I would not have Nicole interrupt your meeting unless it was an emergency."

"Well, what is it?"

"Your parents." I state.

"What about them?" He snaps.

"They're here."

"What?" He exclaims.

"They're sitting in our living room, Logan." I explain.

He lets out a huge sigh. "Look, I'll be home as soon as I can. It'll probably be another half an hour."

"OK, I'll see you soon."

"OK, bye."

"Bye."

I head back downstairs and walk into the living room. Mitchum is sitting in one of the chairs and Shira is in the one right next to it.

"Can I get you something to drink while we wait for Logan?"

"I'm fine." Mitchum answers.

"No thank you Rory." Shira responds. Wow! She finally speaks.

"Logan shouldn't be too much longer. He's just finishing with his meeting." I explain as I take a seat on the couch.

"That's fine." Mitchum nods. "So tell me Rory…how do you like California?"

"I like it." I admit. "It took a little adjusting but overall, it's been good."

"This is such a cute little house, Rory." Shira comments and I bite my tongue a little. I guess to people that live in mansions 1800 square feet can seem small but it's more than adequate for the two of us.

"Thank you. Logan did a good job picking it out. He found it when he came here for his job interview." I explain. I hesitate for a moment then ask. "So is there a reason for this trip?"

"Well, we just figured that it was time for all of us to sit down and have a talk about everything." Mitchum tells me.

"Why now?" I ask.

"Yes, I'd actually like to know that myself." Logan comes in from the kitchen.

"I thought you said half an hour." I whisper to him.

"I got done early." He sits next to me on the couch and gives me a quick kiss. "Mom, dad." He nods to both of them.

"Hello Logan."

"Hi darling."

"How did you get our address?" Logan asks in a demanding tone. Oh, this is not going to be a pretty conversation.

"Your sister was nice enough to give it to me when I told her we wanted to make a visit out to see you." Mitchum's voice is remaining neutral amazingly enough.

"So what brings you here?" He asks.

"Well, we wanted to talk to you about the wedding and everything."

"OK." He nods.

"I must admit it did come as a shock a week ago hearing from my employees how they were invited to your wedding and yet we haven't received our invitation."

"You know very well why you haven't received your invitation, dad."

"Yes, I suppose I do however I guess I didn't realize just how serious you were."

"Maybe you should have taken it more seriously."

I sigh and get up and pull Logan's hand. "Excuse us for just a moment." I yank him into kitchen with me. "What the hell are you doing, Logan?" I demand in a whisper.

"What are you talking about?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. Why are you acting like this? Let him finish talking."

"Why are you defending him after the way he's treated you?"

"I'm not defending him but the reality is, I would actually love to see a truce between all of us. They're here, Logan."

"You're being incredibly naïve."

I shrug. "Maybe I am but I prefer to think of it as optimistic. Come on, Logan you know you want your parents at our wedding."

"Of course I do."

"Then give them a chance."

* * *

Today has been the longest day ever! I've been in this meeting with Scott and Mark since I got here at 9. We did break for lunch at 1 but going over facts and figures can become extremely tedious.

Right now we're sitting in the executive boardroom discussing the launch of the virtual game when there's a knock on the door. Nicole, my secretary, comes in.

"Excuse me, Logan, Rory's on line 1 for you."

"Tell her I'll call her back as soon as I can." I tell Nicole and she leaves. She comes back a moment later.

"Umm…she says it's urgent."

I sigh. This really better be like a life or death situation.

"Go ahead Logan." Scott nods to me as he reviews his paperwork.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, it's fine."

I head back to my office to take the call. "Rory, I'm in the middle of an important meeting. Can't this wait?"

"No Logan it can't. I would not have Nicole interrupt your meeting unless it was an emergency."

"Well, what is it?"

"Your parents."

"What about them?"

"They're here."

"What?" I scream.

"They're sitting in our living room, Logan."

I let out a heavy sigh. "Look, I'll be home as soon as I can. It'll probably be another half an hour."

"OK, I'll see you soon."

"OK. Bye."

"Bye."

I head back into the boardroom and apologize to both Scott and Mark for the interruption.

"That's OK." Scott tells me. "Is everything OK, Logan?"

"Honestly, Scott, I'm not sure. That was Rory calling to tell me that my parents are at our house."

"Really?" Mark says.

"Yeah." I nod.

"When was the last time you talked to them?" Scott asks.

"Three months ago."

"Do you have any idea why they're here?" Mark asks.

"Actually, yeah. I have a very good idea. A good portion of my dad's friends and colleagues got their invitations to our wedding and my parents haven't."

Scott clears his throat. "You know, I think we're in a good place to stop today." He concludes. "We'll pick this up on Monday."

This surprises me. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Go home Logan. Talk to your parents." He tells me.

"OK." I nod and grab my papers and head for the door.

"Logan?" Scott says.

"Yeah?" I turn around and face him.

"Good luck."

"Thanks." I speed walk out the door and make a brief stop at my office then head out. I get to my car and speed out of the parking out in a hurry. OK, so I could have gone a little more economical and earth friendly but I wanted a convertible again. So when Rory and I went car shopping, we went to a variety of car dealerships including Bentley, Infiniti, and BMW but I ultimately decided on a Jaguar XKR. It's been an excellent car so far…as it should be. It cost me the majority of my bonus.

I walk in the back door which is inside the garage and I hear Rory asking what the reason for their trip is and my dad responding how he feels it's time we all have a talk.

"Why now?" Rory asks.

It's time to make my presence known. "Yes, I'd actually like to know that myself."

"I thought you said half an hour." Rory whispers to me.

"I got done early." I reveal as I kiss her. "Mom, dad."

"Hello Logan."

"Hi darling."

"How did you get our address?" I ask harshly. I made sure not to give it to them.

"Your sister was nice enough to give it to me when I told her we wanted to make a visit out to see you."

As soon as they leave, I'm making a call to her and we're going to have a little talk about how the plan fell through. "So what brings you here?" I take a seat next to Rory on the couch.

"Well, we wanted to talk to you about the wedding and everything." My dad explains.

"OK." I say.

"I must admit it did come as a shock a week ago hearing from my employees how they were invited to your wedding and yet we haven't received our invitation."

My eyes narrow at him. "You know very well why you haven't received your invitation, dad."

"Yes, I suppose I do however I guess I didn't realize just how serious you were."

"Maybe you should have taken it more seriously." I retort and Rory groans.

"Excuse us for just a moment." She pulls me into the kitchen out of my parents' view.

"What the hell are you doing, Logan?" She growls at me.

"What are you talking about?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. Why are you acting like this? Let him finish talking."

I can't believe what I'm hearing. "Why are you defending him after the way he's treated you?"

"I'm not defending him," She argues. "but the reality is, I would actually love to see a truce between all of us. They're here, Logan." Rory points out.

"You're being incredibly naïve."

"Maybe I am but I prefer to think of it as optimistic. Come on Logan. You know you want your parents at our wedding."

"Of course I do."

"Then give them a chance."

I sigh. Yeah, I know I should.

"Do it for me." She tells me and I smile at her. Mainly because I think it's the first time she's had to resort to that tactic.

"OK." I nod. "For you I'll try."

Her face breaks out into a huge grin, "Thank you Logan."

"I still get the ability to tell them to leave if I don't like what they say."

She nods. "OK. That's fair."

I lean in and kiss her. She pulls back a few seconds later. "Ready to go back?"

"In a minute." I wrap my arms around her waist and kiss her again.

"Logan…" She mumbles against my mouth.

"Hmm…"

"Why are you acting like you're heading for an execution?"

"Because it kind of feels like it." I confess.

"So what is this, like your last request?"

I smirk at her. "No if this truly was a last request, I'd be picking something different."

She smacks my arm and I laugh. "You have a dirty mind, Ace. I didn't even tell you what I would pick."

"You think I don't know you well enough to know what you'd pick?"

"You may be surprised." I tell her as I give her another kiss. "We better get back. We'll finish talking about this after they leave."

I interlace our fingers together and lead Rory back into the living room.

"Everything OK?" My dad asks.

"Everything's fine." I tell him as we sit back on the couch. "OK, so you wanted to talk."

"I know we've had our differences, Logan but I honestly thought we'd still be invited to your wedding."

"I've told you repeatedly that until you were fully accepting of the fact that Rory's going to be my wife I didn't want to talk to you and that included the wedding." I remind him calmly.

"Well, I've never had anything against Rory." My dad argues. "I've always thought that Rory and you were perfect for each other."

Rory's now raising an eyebrow. "Always?"

"OK, so we didn't get off to the best start but you've known how I've felt about the two of you together I told that just awhile ago when we had supper to celebrate Logan's birthday."

Rory and I share a look. Yeah I vaguely remember her relaying details to me about the conversation she and my dad had while I went and took my call. It made her feel strange…sort of uneasy.

"That's nice to hear, dad however I think you failed to give that memo to mom." I look over at her. No surprise; she's failing to actually look at me. "She's never accepted Rory."

"Oh, come on Logan. That's not true." He protests and I internally roll my eyes.

"Really? Because I don't hear her refuting this."

"All right, Logan." My mom finally speaks. "Yes, we aren't what you would call best friends but I have never had a problem with Rory."

Rory and I exchange looks again. I very highly doubt that either of us are actually believing this.

"You do realize that lying isn't going to get you the invitation to the wedding." I tell them and I get smacked on my arm for that. "What?" I ask Rory.

"Quit it." She scolds me then clears her throat. "I think what Logan means to say was that he's having a hard time believing that." She looks over at me for a confirmation so I nod. "I mean, let's face it, Shira; I'm having a hard time believing it too. You made it clear in very blatant terms how I wasn't the girl that you wanted your son to marry."

"Yes, I realize that however Mitchum and I have discussed at length about your relationship. He has reminded me how much Logan has changed since you've been together."

"Changed how?" I ask.

"Well, for starters, partying is no longer your #1 priority." My dad mentions.

"You know, Mitchum, as much as I would love to take credit for that, I can't." Rory admits. "Logan realized just how important his work was and cut back on partying all by himself."

That is true; I did do that pretty much by myself but to say that she played no role in it is a lie.

"Logan loves his work." Rory continues. "Right now, I want him to keep his focus on that and I'm keeping focused on the wedding."

"Actually, I'm keeping focused on both." I correct her. "And Rory's correct. I do love my job. I've got a great staff and a really nice boss."

"Sure, he's changed but very little of it had to do with me. He's done 95% of it all by himself."

Well, those numbers may be a little off. I'm thinking the reality is 75% me, 25% her. I don't think she realizes just how much of an influence she has on me. It is quite a bit.

"So how is the wedding planning coming?" My dad asks.

"Good." I tell him. "Everything is right on schedule." And Thank God it is because I don't need to watch Rory have a breakdown and she would have one.

"Sixty-three days." Rory chimes in.

I'm just waiting for them to ask about when they'll get their invitation. Sure, they've been polite but they still haven't won me over yet.

"That's great." My dad nods and smiles. He then stands up which surprises me. "We need to get going right now but your mother and I would like to take you and Rory out for dinner."

"Dinner?" Rory repeats.

"Yes." He nods. "What time would work for you?"

"Umm…" Rory's hesitating.

"Seven is fine." I answer.

"Any place in particular that you recommend?" He asks.

"What sounds good, Ace?"

"How about STK?"

I nod. "Yeah, that sounds good. It's been awhile since we've been there."

We agree that we'll meet at STK at 7. My dad told me he'd find it. He says how his driver knows his way around. They leave then and we go and take a seat in the living room.

Rory sighs. "That was…"

"Interesting." I fill in.

"Your mother was actually being polite, Logan." Rory acknowledges.

"Yeah, who knew she was capable of it, right?" I smile at her as I tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. She smiles back but I can tell something's bothering her.

"What's up, Ace?"

"You think she meant what she said?"

I sigh. You see this is the hard part. "I'd love to believe that she meant everything she said, Rory."

"But you're not buying it." She concludes.

I slowly nod. "Is it entirely possible? Sure. I mean, nothing's outside the realm of possibility. It's just I've been in this family for so long. I question everything coming out of their mouths."

"You mean like, 'What a cute little house, Rory!'"

"Did she say that?" I grin.

She nods. "Yeah, she did."

I'm sure that me telling her this isn't making her feel any better but honestly we need to go into this with our eyes wide open and the rose colored glasses kept off.

"Let's talk about something else." I suggest. "So what have you been doing all day?"

"Research." She tells me as she opens her laptop and shows me.

"Ahh…condos." I grin. "Are you finding any that you like?"

"Actually, several. I have a good sized list going."

Ahh…Ace, my little list maker. "So what's all on the list?"

"At least 1200 square feet, 3 bedrooms, at least 2 bathrooms." She pauses for a moment and asks. "What's important to you with this place?"

I think for a moment. "Location should be an important factor."

"Naturally."

"An office."

"OK."

"Rooftop deck."

"A rooftop deck is important to you?" She looks at me curiously.

"OK so between location and a rooftop deck, location is more important but it would be nice to have a balcony."

We make a reasonable list and she shows me all of the condos she likes. They are all incredible…and they're all over a million dollars.

"Are you sure you want to spend so much?" I ask as I look at a 2300 square foot place with a balcony. The asking price is just over $2 million dollars.

"Absolutely. Logan, real estate is one of the best investments you can make. Besides with all this money it's going to prove that I'm being responsible."

"I think they know you well enough to know you are."

"I would hope so but regardless my grandpa will still need to sign off on it."

At quarter after five, Rory heads into our bathroom to take a shower. About three minutes after she gets in, the phone rings. I pick it up on the second ring.

"Hello?"

"Hey Logan." It's Rory's mom.

"Oh, hey Lorelai." I answer. "How are you?"

"Umm…doing pretty good. You?"

"It's too soon to tell." I admit. "You'll have to check back later tonight."

"Why's that?"

"We're having supper with my parents."

"Really?" She sounds surprised. "When did that happen?"

"Oh, they just showed up today saying mea culpa, mea culpa."

"Wow!" She exclaims.

"Yeah, so what's going on?" I ask.

"Umm…not too much. Is Rory busy?"

"Actually she's in the shower right now. Did you want me to have her call you as soon as she gets done?"

"Umm…that's ok. You guys have more than enough to worry about tonight." OK so now she's sounding preoccupied.

"Lorelai?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just have some news but it can wait until tomorrow."

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely. You guys go and have a good night. Hope everything goes good for you tonight."

"Thanks." I tell her. "We'll talk to you tomorrow then."

"Sounds good. Bye Logan."

"Bye Lorelai." I hang up the phone and stare at it for a moment. That was…an odd conversation. She seemed bothered by something.

"Hey."

I look up and see Rory wearing her blue bathrobe and drying her hair with one of the towels. "Hey."

"What's going on?" She sits down beside me on our bed.

"Oh, your mom called. She's going to call back tomorrow." I explain and she frowns.

"She didn't want me to call her back?"

I shrug. "I asked, but she said she'd just call you tomorrow."

"Did she say what she wanted?"

I shake my head. "No, not really. I mean, she said she had news but she never said what it was."

"Huh…a mystery." She concludes as she heads to the closet and flips through the assortment of dresses she has. She pulls out a black lace dress and changes into it.

"That's a pretty dress." I smile as I comment. "When did you get that?"

"Thank you. I thought it was pretty too. I got it a few days ago at Macy's. They had a huge sale and the dress was really cheap."

My bargain shopper. She knows how to get a great deal. That's why with this condo search I have no doubt she'll find a great place at an amazing price.

"Logan…" I hear her say.

Once again, my mind is drifting away.

"Hmm…" I look over at her as she puts her jewelry on.

"Are we going to give them this tonight?" Rory asks as she picks the invitation up from my dresser.

I sigh. "Honestly, Ace I'm not sure. It's all going to depend on what happens at dinner."

She slowly nods. "OK."

"I do want you to keep it in your purse though."

"Will do." She heads back into the bathroom to finish getting ready.

We're out the door at quarter to 7. It takes us almost all 15 minutes to get to the restaurant. Traffic is a little high tonight. When we get there, we're greeted by Rob, the doorman.

"Good evening, Mr. Huntzberger." He shakes my hand.

"Hello Rob."

"Hello, Miss Gilmore." He shakes Rory's hand.

"Hello Rob."

We thank him after he opens the door for us. I find out that my parents have already arrived and been seated. We get to our table and my parents have already ordered their drink. Not only that my dad has already finished half of his scotch. How long have they been there?

We greet them and I pull out Rory's chair and she smooths out her dress and sits down.

"A little thirsty, dad?" I comment as I sit down. He's across from me and I'm sitting in between my mom and Rory.

"Yes, I guess I am." He laughs.

The waiter comes and takes our drink orders. I order a scotch on the rocks and Rory decides to get a glass of Merlot.

"I didn't know you drank, Rory." My dad comments after the waiter leaves.

"Every once in awhile I do." She informs him and opens her menu.

She has cut back on her drinking since college. Not that she was ever much of a heavy drinker. She has been on occasion though and it's pretty amusing when she is drunk. That's not her goal tonight though. In fact, I'm pretty sure that the only reason she's drinking tonight is because she's nervous. I know her too well.

"Any recommendations?" My dad asks from behind his menu.

"No, not really." Rory tells him.

"Everything is equally good." I add.

The waiter comes back to bring our drinks and take our orders. I get steak, Rory gets chicken, my dad also gets steak and my mom gets fish. We sit in eerie silence until the waiter comes back to bring us bread.

"Let's talk about the wedding. So you've said that everything is on schedule?" My dad asks.

I nod as I sip my scotch.

"In what way can your mother and I help out?"

Rory and I share a look. It's interesting hearing him even say that. I never thought I would ever hear him utter those words.

"Actually, we're good." I inform them and we are. They look rather surprised by that. Yeah, this is more believable now. I was getting sick of this fake crap they were trying to pull.

"Really?" My mom raises an eyebrow.

"Yeah, everything's taken care of." Rory confirms.

I just shake my head at them. "I'm sorry but have the two of you forgotten who Rory's grandparents are? Richard and Emily gave her a designated amount in her trust to spend on the wedding."

"Well, that's wonderful." My mom comments. God, could this night get any more fake?

"Yes, it is." Rory smiles as she takes a bite out of her battered bread. This isn't a regular smile though. This is a let's just cut the crap smile. She then looks over at me. "You know, speaking of grandparents, my grandma never did tell us why your grandpa looked like he'd seen a ghost when I mentioned her last name to him."

"I'm not worried about it. I'm sure she'll tell us about why at the wedding." I glance over at my parents whose faces have went blank. "That's going to be a good present."

"An entertaining present." Rory corrects me.

"Absolutely." I grin.

My dad's eyes narrow. "What are you doing, Logan?"

Before I can respond, our food gets brought to us. I dive into my New York Strip Steak. It's excellent.

"How's your chicken, Ace?" I ask Rory as I take a bite of my baked potato.

"Amazing." She murmurs. "How's your steak?"

"It's really good. Want to try it?"

"Sure." I give her a bit of mine and she gives me a bit of hers.

"That's really good." I tell her.

"Yeah, yours is good too."

I look over at my parents who are staring curiously at us.

"What?" I groan.

"Do you two do that often?" My mom asks in horror.

Jesus, she's acting like we were having sex on the table. "What? Share food? Yes, we normally do every time we go out." My mom's looking appalled. "Could you please stop looking at me like I'm committing some cardinal sin?" I tell her. "Believe it or not, it's not out of the ordinary for people to share food."

"But you're using each other's forks."

I groan. I decide to cut another piece of my steak and Rory cuts another piece of her chicken. Using our own forks then we each grab them and eat.

"Happy mother?"

We eat in silence again for a few minutes and then make small conversation.

"So I'm curious about something." I tell my dad.

"What's that?"

"Whether or not grandpa knew you were making this trip."

"Yes, he knew." My mom responds quietly.

"So I can assume he is still boycotting this marriage because I refuse to have Rory sign a prenup?"

My dad shrugs. "He's just being very opinionated."

Yeah, that's not uncommon with our family. "She's still not signing it." I tell him adamantly. "If he still plans to enforce it, he won't be getting his invitation."

"Logan…" My dad starts.

"I'm not joking, dad. Have you not gotten that yet?"

"Just draw the papers up." Rory stuns me by saying this. I think she stuns my parents too.

"Rory, I told you I wasn't making you sign it."

"Logan, you know and I know that I don't want your money but if it's what it takes to prove it to your grandpa, fine."

My parents grin…too bad I make that short lived.

"OK, here's the deal. Rory will sign the prenup but it's going to have some changes made to it."

My dad's expression falls flat. "Like what?"

"Like it's going to have the same terms as the one I signed for her."

"You signed a prenup for Rory?" My dad repeats.

"Yes and her grandma Hayden's agreed to have a sunset provision put into it. The prenup is going to be null and void after 5 years or after the birth of our first child. So her prenup is going to match the one I signed."

"I doubt your grandpa is going to go for that." My dad protests.

"Well, it's been nice seeing you then. Maybe we'll try this again after we get back from our honeymoon because you 3 won't be attending the wedding." I inform them as I take a bite out of my potato.

"Logan…" My dad starts again.

"This is non-negotiable, dad. You bring this up to grandpa and tell him it's this or nothing at all. You'll also want to mention to him if he tries to hide anything in it, before anything is signed, my lawyer is going to review the paperwork thoroughly for me to make sure that no one is trying to screw Rory over. You're not getting me to agree to the prenup version that Honor and Josh signed. Once the prenup's been reviewed and signed, you'll get your invitations but not until then." My voice had raised a little so I gaze around the restaurant. Apparently I wasn't that loud or if I was, they're ignoring me.

I look over at Rory who's quietly eating her food…and keeping her eyes on her plate. This is scaring her a little, I think.

"Ace…"

She looks up then. "Hmm…"

"You OK?"

"Of course." She cracks a smile. "I'm fine."

"You sure?"

"Yeah." She hesitates for a moment.

"What is it?"

"Calm down." She whispers.

"I would second that." My dad says as he drains the rest of his scotch.

"Fine." I state evenly. "I'll calm down but I'm not backing down. You need to go back to Connecticut and discuss if it's worth losing your heir over something like this because that's what we're talking about here. In case the last 3 months haven't proved anything to you since you cut me off…"

"You weren't cut off." My dad interrupts me.

"What are you talking about?"

"You were never cut off. You would know that if you had tried to get into your trust."

"See that's my point, dad. I don't need it now and I haven't needed it." I argue quietly. "We have done just fine without it. I'm sure you thought that I'd come to you and tell you that I was wrong but I didn't and I'm not wrong."

I pause for a moment. "So we're at an impasse." I inform them. "It's time to decide what's really important to you." I see the waiter off in the distance heading our way.

"OK, so the waiter's about to come and I'm going to pay for this but you should know that whenever we eat here, we always get dessert and split it. So if you don't want to watch us share our dessert, you may want to call it a night." I warn them.

"Let me clear some of these plates for you." He grabs all of the plates. "Have you left room for dessert?"

"What sounds good, Ace?"

"Triple Chocolate cake."

"One piece of Triple Chocolate cake please." I glance over at my parents. "Do you want any dessert?"

They both politely decline.

A few minutes later, the waiter brings out a large piece of cake. After we each take a bite, my parents decide to make their exit. They rise from the table.

"We need to get going." My dad informs me. "We'll be in touch."

Yeah, I'm sure we will. "OK." I nod as I feed Rory a bite of cake.

We say our goodbyes and they seem to hightail it out of the restaurant as fast as they can.

"What an eventful dinner." I comment.

"Yeah, it was." She nods. "I somehow don't think we resolved anything." She confesses.

"Yes we did." I smirk at her. "I was very serious about what I said, Rory."

"I know you were." She nods as she takes another bite of cake. "Do you really have a lawyer?"

"The company does, yeah."

She takes another bite of the cake.

"You really didn't have to agree to the prenup, Ace."

"I know I didn't." She pauses then adds. "You didn't have to have them make changes."

"Yes, I did. I wasn't going to let them screw you over like they're doing with Honor and Josh's prenup."

"You've seen Honor and Josh's prenup?"

I take a bite of cake. "No, Honor told me about it. She's not happy about it but she knows what will happen if she goes against them."

"But being cut off doesn't bother you at all."

"No, I've come to terms with it. Quite frankly it needed to be done." I feed her another bite. She takes it but then pulls away.

"OK, so what's up with this?"

"What?"

"You feeding me cake."

"Practice for the wedding." I offer.

Rory grins. "Nice try but when it comes to the wedding we'll actually be using our hands. So what's the real reason?"

"I enjoyed watching my parents squirm in their seats." I admit and she laughs.

"It was actually pretty funny."

"Acting lovey-dovey in front of them always gets to them. I think it's because it makes them realize they've never had that feeling."

She stares at me blankly. "You don't think your parents have ever been in love?"

"I'm willing to bet my entire trust fund they've never been in love with each other." I tell her and then reveal. "It's been a marriage of convenience more than anything. All of it was my grandpa's doing."

She gets quiet. I think this conversation is starting to worry her so I put her mind at ease.

"You know, I spent my whole life watching them and telling myself I would never get married unless I was in love."

She grins at me.

"And by 'in love', I mean completely, deeply, passionately…" I get cut off because she leans over and kisses me.

"I love you too Logan." She extends a forkful of cake to me.

I accept it and grin. "Thank you, Ace."

"Sure. I mean, you've been feeding it to me this whole time…"

"No, that's not what I mean. Thank you for being you. With everything that has happened in the past with you and my parents, you're still willing to try to make things work with them."

"Well, it's important to you." She reasons.

"Yeah, it is…or it was. No matter what the outcome of this is, I will always appreciate you making the effort."

She smiles at me.

"Thank you." I tell her.

"You're welcome."

I lean over and kiss her.

* * *

The next morning

7am

I'm very slowly coming out of my sleep induced coma due to my very loud vibrating cell phone. I pick it up and groan. It's my mom.

"Hello?"

"Hello my lovely daughter!" She sings.

"Please tell me you have a very good excuse for waking me up at 7 am." I grumble.

"I do but let me ask you first about how your dinner went."

"It was OK."

"Just OK?"

"It was fine. We ate dinner, Logan and I were eating each other's food, which was driving his parents crazy…"

"Why?"

"We were using each other's forks."

"Oh my god! You should be arrested! All those germs!" My mom mocks and I laugh.

"My thoughts exactly. Anyway, Logan issued his parents another ultimatum."

"He did?"

"Yeah, apparently, they must have been thinking that they could break him down I'm sure. It didn't work."

"Damn right it didn't work." Logan mumbles with his eyes closed. I start to laugh.

"And we ended the night splitting a piece of chocolate cake."

"I bet his parents loved watching that."

"They left after the first bite."

"So where do you all stand?"

"It's all up in the air right now." I yawn. "Let's get off that subject. So what's your news? Bad news? Good news?"

"Umm…I'd like to think it's good news."

"Let me guess. You and Luke got engaged." I predict.

"Umm…actually we did."

"Really?" I exclaim. "Logan, my mom and Luke got engaged!" I start to shake him awake.

"That's great Ace." He mumbles. "Tell your mom congrats." He falls back asleep then.

"That's great, mom. Logan says congratulations too."

"Thanks but Rory that's not the news."

"Oh, there's more? Oh, OK."

"Are you sitting down?"

"No, I'm lying down. It's 7am, mom. I haven't moved from my bed."

"Well, OK, here goes."

"What? What is it?"

"I'm pregnant."

I immediately shoot up from my bed, "What?"

* * *

**Yea! So did everyone like how I ended that chapter? Like I said, the dinner may have been a little OOC for them but I had them do the food stuff to drive his parents crazy. As for the whole prenup thing and going back on that and the fact that she would sign one, there is a reason that's put in. It's in the later chapters though so you'll have to be patient. Next chapter is condo search and I will tell you that I've searched them months on end for the San Francisco Area and it's a nice combination of things. I couldn't find one I truly liked but there were a lot of nice ones. Also I'm looking for your help now. Two things: the wedding's written and his parents and grandpa are in attendance. Would it be better if they weren't? Also still looking for wedding songs. I'll be more specific about what I'm looking for though. I'm thinking rock and more 80's or 90's. Anyway, please please review! I'll get the next chapter out ASAP.**


	18. The Great Condo Search

**OK everyone! It's here! It took me a month to get this chapter done but it's here. I apologize at how long it took but this actually was a VERY time consuming chapter. I have a confession to make. I'm a HUGE House Hunters fan on HGTV. There's a lot of real estate lingo and I'm sorry if it's hard to follow. Also, there's a lot of amenities that I could have mentioned or should have mentioned or maybe even given better descriptions of colors of the condos but it just became too much to get it all down for this chapter. I mean this is already 7400 words so I just wanted to get it done for you. Anyway, hope you like it. Next chapter jumps ahead in time and would be the week before the wedding and the bachelor/ette parties will be going on. Remember to review!**

* * *

"What?" I fly into a seating position.

"Yeah, it's true." My mom admits.

"You're sure?" This is just so unbelievable.

"I took 3 tests, kid. I'm sure."

"Wow!" I exclaim. "That's great news, mom. Congratulations."

"Are you happy?" She asks me. I'm shocked is what I am. I don't tell her that. Out of all of the things that I could have expected her to say that would have been dead last.

"Yeah, I think it's great, mom." And it is. It's just going to take some adjusting to it. I then ask her. "The bigger question is, are you happy? Is Luke happy?"

"Yeah, we're both happy."

"That's great. How long have you known?" I ask quietly.

"Just since yesterday morning."

"Wow! So you literally just found out."

"Yeah. You were my first call yesterday."

"But who have you told since then?"

"Just Sookie."

"How long are you going to wait before you tell grandma and grandpa?"

"As long as I possibly can."

"Mom…"

"Soon…just not yet." She explains.

"OK. Look I need to go. I want to try to get some more sleep. Logan and I are looking at condos today."

"You're going to buy a condo?"

"Hopefully if we find one we both like."

"Well, good luck."

"Thanks. Congratulations again. I'll talk to you later."

"Bye, hun."

"Bye mom." I hang up the phone and set it on my nightstand. I then fall back against my pillow. I glance over at Logan who is like dead to the world.

"Logan…" I nudge his arm. "Logan…"

"What?" He mumbles.

"Wake up."

"No, it's still too early. Go back to sleep." He grumbles.

"I can't." I tell him. "I'm too shocked."

"Because your mom and Luke are engaged? They've been engaged before." He answers with his eyes closed. "Why is that so shocking?"

"That wasn't her news, Logan." I inform him. "She's pregnant."

His eyes fly open. "What?"

I nod. "Yeah."

"Oh my God! Well that would explain the way she sounded yesterday."

I frown at him. "What do you mean?"

"Well, she sounded a little bit off." He's staring at me curiously. "So what do you think?"

"I think it's great."

"You're not sounding very convincing."

"No, it's great. It's great. It's just so unexpected."

"Imagine what your mom is feeling." Logan points out. Yeah, he's got a point there.

"Yeah, I know." I yawn. I'm struggling to keep my eyes open.

"Look, let's talk more about this a little later. Let's get some more sleep. I know you're still tired."

"Yeah, I am." I admit. "I don't know if I can though."

"Just try." He pleads with me. "It won't be much longer before we have to get up."

"OK." I nod as my eyes drift shut. The next thing I know I hear the shower turn on. I glance over at my clock on the nightstand. Wow! It's already 9:30. I need to get going. We're supposed to meet the realtor in a couple hours.

I head into the bathroom and step into the shower. Logan has his back to me so I wrap my arms around his waist. I see him jump and I laugh.

He turns around and smiles. "You scared me."

"I'm sneaky like that." I tease as I kiss him. I honestly would have thought he heard the shower door open…apparently not.

"Good morning." He kisses me again.

"Good morning." I stand underneath the showerhead.

"Did you sleep OK then?"

I nod. "Yeah, I slept fine."

"Good. I think it's a good thing. You'll have a new brother or sister after all." He points out.

"It is a good thing but Logan, are you forgetting I'm not an only child? I have Gigi."

"True but how often did you really see her? I just think it's going to be a different experience this time because it's your mom that's having the baby."

Yeah, it would be a different experience if I was still living at home and this was a few years ago. Now, though, it's going to be pretty similar to what it was like with Gigi and it kind of makes me sad. It's time to get off of this subject now.

I look out the door and see it's 20 to 10. "Hey, remember we need to be out of here by 11:15."

"I know." He nods.

"Dress comfortably. I have no idea just how much walking we're going to be doing."

"How many are we going to go see?"

"I selected 4 of them." I explain as I run shampoo through my hair.

"Did they meet everything on the want list?" He asks as he rinses his hair out**.**

I nod as I wash the shampoo out and grab the conditioner.

"How many of them have rooftop decks?"

I grin as I rinse the conditioner out of my hair. "All of them."

"Really? All of them?"

"Yeah."

"Awesome." He tells me as he gets out of the shower. "I'm going to go get started on breakfast."

"I'll be down in a few minutes."

That really is all I take too. Mainly because I know if I take any longer, I'm going to start running late on everything. I get out of the shower and change into a blue ruffly rayon dress and blue flats. I'm definitely not wearing heels. The flats are super comfortable.

By the time I put my makeup on and finish doing my hair, it's just after 10. I head downstairs and Logan's making French toast.

"That smells really good." I tell him as I take a seat at the breakfast bar.

"Good. I took a guess what you would be in the mood for."

"Well, you guessed right. Do you want any help?"

He shakes his head. "Not with cooking but you can get the stuff out of fridge for me."

"Sure."

We finish eating just before 11. After doing a quick once over in the mirror and grabbing my purse, we head out in my Prius. I've only been talking to the realtor on the phone so I have no real clue where his office is. I had to go to Mapquest for directions. It's in San Francisco. I haven't done much looking around yet in San Francisco; just basically the stores. There are a lot of great neighborhoods. One of my favorites is Russian Hill; two of the condos are there.

I'm glad we left early because we had taken a wrong turn. We get to the realtor's office at just after 12. I rush in with Logan trailing behind me.

"Hello, I'm Rory Gilmore." I tell the receptionist as I try to catch my breath. "This is Logan Huntzberger, my fiancé. We're here to meet with Cody Young."

"Sure. I will let him know you're here. Please go ahead and have a seat." The receptionist smiles as she makes a call. We take seats in the modest waiting area. "He'll be out shortly." She tells me after she's hung up the phone.

"Thank you."

Logan gives me a once over. "You're glowing."

"I'm excited." I correct him. "I think this is going to be fun." I gush. I now look him over and he's not sharing my level of enthusiasm. "What's wrong?"

He shrugs. "Nothing."

"You don't seem very happy to be here." I point out.

"Of course I am Ace but compared to how you're beaming everyone else is going to seem like they're mad."

Another point for my future husband. He's very smart, you know. "Point taken. OK so we're not buying any place unless we both agree."

He nods. "Understood."

"Miss Gilmore?"

I look up and see a guy in a gray suit and tie standing in front of me. I'd guess he's about Logan's age, has light brown hair and tall.

"Yes?"

"Hi." He extends his hand to me. "I'm Cody Young. It's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too. By the way, you can call me Rory."

"OK, Rory. Did you find the office OK?"

I look over at Logan. "Well…"

Logan finishes my thought. "There was a wrong turn that got us delayed but other than that, we had no problem. Hi, I'm Logan Huntzberger, Rory's fiancé." He shakes Cody's hand.

"It's nice to meet you, Logan. Are you ready to go see some condos?"

"Absolutely." I tell him.

The first condo we see is in the South Beach area in San Francisco. It's got 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms but unfortunately no office. It's almost 2000 square feet. It's in the One Rincon Hill building and it was the same one I was looking at when Logan's parents arrived yesterday. The building is a huge high rise. There are over 50 levels to this building. I just stare at it in awe until Logan pulls me along with him.

We ride up to the 53rd level…the penthouse. From what the listing said, the condo's got amazing views of the Bay Bridge and the skyline. As soon as we walk in, we see a huge closet off to the left and right next to it is a stackable washer and dryer.

"That's nice." Logan comments.

"It would be nice if it was full sized but it is nice to even have one." I add.

We walk down the hall and the first of the rooms is the kitchen. It's pretty big. There's no island but there's stainless steel appliances and hardwood floors.

"What kind of wood is this?" I tap my foot on the floor.

"Both the floors and cabinets throughout this condo are Brazilian Cherry."

"They're gorgeous." I comment.

"The only thing that gets to me is the fact that it's not an open kitchen." Logan mentions. "It's kind of cut off from the living room area and for entertaining that's kind of a downfall."

Cody nods as if he's mentally taking all this down for what we're saying. We head out of the kitchen and down the hall and spot another small closet.

"We can't say it doesn't have any storage space." Logan jokes and I smile.

We make our way to the huge living/dining room.

"Wow! This is great!" I remark. "Logan, look at the views! Hey, there's the balcony." I make my way to the balcony door and step outside.

"I love this. It's amazing." I tell the guys. "Logan…what do you think?"

"Having a balcony is always great. It does have great views though. I bet it looks pretty incredible at night with the darkness and just the lights from downtown shining."

"They're stunning." Cody tells us.

We go back inside and straight off the living room is one of the bedrooms.

"This is good sized." I conclude.

"Yeah, it's good sized and it has its own bathroom too." Logan mentions. "This would be ideal for when your mom and Luke would come to visit."

I nod. "That's true and plus it looks like it has its own little balcony."

We step out onto the balcony and the views are just as impressive. The room does have a decent sized bathroom and a walk in closet. Logan's right. It would be good for mom and Luke.

We head to the other side of the condo and to the right side is a bathroom. It's good sized and has a big walk in shower but there's no bathtub. Not a problem at this point but it could be sometime later. On the other side of the hall is another bedroom. It's a little bit bigger than the other bedroom but it doesn't have a walk-in closet.

"This would actually be a good size for when we have kids." I announce and I think Logan stopped breathing when I said that.

"Can we get through the wedding first, please?" He begs and I laugh.

"Geez, Logan. I never said that it would be any time soon here, did I? I was just commenting about the future. I mean, the condo is going to our house for a long time."

"I realize that, Ace." He points out as he heads out of the room and next door to the master suite. The bedroom part actually seems slightly smaller than the bedroom we just left but it also does have its own big bathroom with dual sinks and a separate shower and soaking tub. There's also a huge walk in closet.

"Wow!" I exclaim.

"We won't have to worry about too little closet space." Logan comments. "We could probably lose each other in here."

"No kidding." I nod then head back into the bedroom to glance out the windows. "This has a nice view too."

"Would you like to go see the rooftop deck?" Cody asks and we nod.

The entrance to the deck is actually just outside on the balcony off the living room. There's a spiral staircase that leads up to the roof. The views are indescribable from up there. A 360 degree view of San Francisco…it's breathtaking. You feel like you're on top of the world from up there.

"I love this." Logan declares. "Hey Ace, can you imagine if we got Colin, Finn, and Steph to come out and visit and the party we could throw up here?"

I nod. "Yeah, it would be great." The likelihood of that happening any time soon is slim to none though. "I think it would be tough for Finn to handle those stairs when he's drunk though."

"Well, he could always camp up here." Logan jokes and we both laugh.

We go back down the stairs and inside.

"So what did you think of the place?" Cody asks us.

"I think there are a lot of positives." I mention.

"The view are incredible, the balconies, the rooftop deck, big bedrooms." Logan says.

"The kitchen was kind of cut off though and there's no office. I know Logan would want an office."

Cody nods.

"What's the price of this place?" Logan asks.

"1.998 million."

"HOA fees?"

"$425 a month." It's not bad, I think to myself.

"What about parking?" I ask.

"The condo comes with one space and another space can be purchased for an extra $30,000."

Wow! Just to have another parking spot costs more than what my car is even worth. I have to remember though this is California and not Connecticut and also my first time buying a condo. I'm sure extra spaces could cost just as much there but I wouldn't know for sure. Even though it has a few negatives we are still keeping it on the list.

The next condo we go to is in the Pacific Heights neighborhood. This condo is 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, has an office and is almost 3,000 square feet. This building isn't as big as the other one…probably about 15 floors but of course we're going to be on the 15th floor.

Cody opens the door and we step inside and look around. Right as we come in, off to the right, is the kitchen. This one is more open than the last one and you can look right into the living room.

"It's nice. I really like the color of the granite countertops." I comment as my hand glides over the island. The color is a blue/gray and has silver and purple specks throughout.

"Has a gas stove and stainless steel for appliances." Logan notes. "What kind of floors are in this condo?"

"These are actually maple and they are throughout the condo."

The living room is a good size and it has a few extras including a fireplace and surround sound for the home theater system.

"What kind of fireplace is this?" Logan asks.

"It is a gas fireplace." Cody replies

"Has it been known to get pretty cold in the winter?" Logan asks.

"It can on occasion." Cody admits. "There have been nights when it's gotten down into the 30's."

Logan and I stifle our laughter.

Cody smiles. "What?"

"Oh, It's nothing." Logan tells him. "It's just we're from Connecticut and what you consider a low we've had for highs in the winter."

"If we're lucky." I add.

Cody laughs then.

There's a deck right off it and it's got good views but not like the other one had. We head up to the rooftop deck then and it's great except it's only semi-private; we would have to share this with the other 3 tenants that are on this floor.

We head back inside and see the 2 guest rooms that are side by side and they share a bathroom. What's nice is even though the two rooms would be sharing a bathroom, this one does have a tub. After we see the other bathroom, we head into the office. It's big…well, at least to me, it is.

"It's too small." Logan informs me.

"What are you talking about too small? The room is big. Cody what are the dimensions of this room?"

"15x15."

"Ace, how would we situate two desks here? I'm just having a hard time picturing it." He admits.

"Explain to me why we need to fit two desks in here. This is going to be your office."

"Our office." He corrects me.

"Why would I need an office? You? Sure, I can see that but me, not so much."

"Well, maybe not now but later after you start working."

My eyes narrow at the implication. "Is this your secret way of telling me how I better plan on bringing work home?"

"Of course not. I would never expect you to do that."

"Hope not." I tell him. "We'll discuss offices later at home."

"OK."

The last stop is the master bedroom. It's huge and it has a huge master bath to go with it.

"That's nice." I point out as I glance around the bedroom. "This one has a sitting area. See, if I really needed an office, I could just use this." I tell Logan and he looks at me like I'm crazy for some odd reason.

"The tray ceiling is cool." He points to the ceiling and there's a big ceiling fan in the center of it. The walk-in closet wasn't as big as I thought it would be.

"So what did you think?"

"It's nice." Logan volunteers. "I like the kitchen and how it's more open to the living room. The bedrooms are good sized."

"The rooftop deck is only semi-private though and according to Logan's standards I guess that office isn't that big."

Logan scowls at me as a response. "What's the price and the HOA fees?"

"The HOA fees are $600 and the price is 2.15 million."

"And the fee for extra parking?" Logan adds.

"The price includes two spaces and it is underground parking." Cody explains.

"Well, that's good." I nod.

The third place we go see is in the Russian Hill neighborhood. This is my ideal neighborhood. Granted there's **a lot** of hills which would not be the funnest to drive, but I've just been so impressed by the condos in this area.

We ride up to the 32nd floor of the building and Cody starts giving us details. "This condo is 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, has an office, rooftop deck, 3700 square feet and the price tag is $4 million."

I think I see Logan's eyes bug out of his head. It is high…really high but I am still surprised by his reaction. I mean, this is California and real estate is not cheap here. It's not fazing me though.

Cody leads us into the kitchen. It is rather dark but it is really nice. There's stainless steel appliances, a pantry and a breakfast bar.

"What color is the granite?" I ask.

"Green." Logan responds and I smack his arm.

"It's actually called Butterfly." Cody tells me.

"Are those bamboo cabinets?" Logan asks and Cody nods.

"Yes, they are. There are bamboo cabinets in the bathroom too."

"That's great." I tell him. "What kind of floors are these?"

"Slate." Logan and Cody answer in unison.

"There's slate floors in the bathroom too but it is a slightly different color. This color is Wildflower." Cody explains.

I notice the colors in the tile. There's a lot of green in them but there's also some purple too. It's a really interesting combination.

The living room has a nice, open floor plan with lots of windows. This place has a fireplace too and also a surround sound system. Lots of bookcases line one wall.

"This would be great storage for the library you have." Logan jokes.

"So funny Huntzberger." I smirk. "But you are right. It's got plenty of room for all of them."

We head into the office and I see Logan's face break out into a huge grin. "Now this is a great office."

It should be; it's got to be at least 20' by 20'. "Finally." I sigh.

"Have I really been that bad?" Logan frowns.

"Well you have been super picky."

"With the amount of money we're spending on the place, I'm allowed to be, OK?"

"OK."

The next place we see is the laundry room. It's big enough to fit a full sized washer and dryer, which is very good. We make our way to the half bathroom which is a modest size. It would work out to be a huge advantage having 3 ½ bathrooms. That way each of the guest rooms has their own full bath. We see the guest bedrooms and they are the same size. They have plenty of room and include bay windows and good sized walk-in closets.

"Ooo…there's crown molding in here." I comment.

"Actually it was in the living room too, Ace." Logan mentions.

"Huh, I'm surprised I missed that."

We peek in the bathroom and it is a full bath with separate tub and shower. "This is really pretty." I comment as I gaze around. "Love this granite." I tell them as my fingers glide across the vanity top. The color is sort of a blue-green and has some gold and burgundy in it.

"Yeah, the blue looks great in here." Logan remarks. "I really like the tile work. Are the other bathrooms like this?"

"The other guest bathroom is identical to this and the master is relatively the same with a few exceptions." Cody explains.

"Like what?" I ask.

"Why don't we go see the master?" He leads us down the hall to the suite.

"Wow!" I exclaim as soon as I enter it. "This is huge!" It is actually the biggest one we've seen yet. The sitting room is actually separated off by French doors. There's crown molding in this room too. That really wasn't a surprise considering it's been in the other rooms but it's still nice to see.

I peek in a door and there's the enormous master closet. "Here's another one we can get lost in, Logan."

"Do you think that you even have enough clothes to fill this?"

"No." I admit. "But it could be fun."

"Are you going to turn into Steph?"

"I don't have that shopping gene in me." I reply with a smile. "But this is going to be excellent for storage too."

"Very true."

We go into the master bath which has double doors. I gasp. I'm just so in awe of this bathroom. It's got a huge whirlpool tub, dual sinks that each have their own vanity, an oversized steam shower that has two showerheads so that Logan and I could each have our own. The granite is the same but I never noticed the slate tile in the other bathrooms until this one.

"So what color is this tile?" It's a grey tile and has some silver and charcoal mixed in. It's pretty neutral and it still seems to go well with the finishes in this room.

"It's called Gondola Harbor."

Interesting. I wonder where that name came from. I look over on the wall and see a dial by the light switch. "What's that for?"

"That's for the radiant heat under the tiles."

"Ooo…Logan. There's heated floors!" I gush.

"You won't have to worry about cold floors ever again." He comments.

The last thing we tour is the rooftop deck. It's got the best views of any place we've seen. Not only can we see the Bay Bridge but also downtown.

We head back downstairs and convene in the kitchen around the breakfast bar.

"I really like it." I comment. "This is my favorite so far." I admit to them.

"It's really nice." Logan agrees. "I really like all the finishes. The slate floors are great and the panoramic views from the rooftop deck are awesome."

"Don't forget your office." I smile sweetly at him and he smirks back at me.

"I wouldn't forget the office, Ace. That was great, too. It's huge. It's definitely got more than enough room for both of us in there."

I still don't get his logic but I'm really not in the mood to argue with him. "What are the HOA fees for this condo?"

"$1250 a month."

Wow! That's kind of steep. It is a very nice place though. With all of the amenities that come with it, it may just be worth it.

"And the parking?" Logan asks.

"There are 2 spaces included in the underground parking."

"That's good that another place has underground parking." I tell them.

The last place we go to is also in Russian Hill. It's just a few blocks down the road from the other condo.

"This condo has 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, 3,650 square feet, and an office for $4.9 million."

I'm letting that price set in. Logan's keeping his mouth shut but I know he's thinking that this is starting to go overboard. "How many parking spaces are there?" I ask.

"There's 2." Cody answers.

"And the HOA fees?" Logan asks.

"$1800 a month."

So that's not a surprise but it is getting extremely high now especially since there's less square footage and there's also half a bathroom less.

"Cody, out of curiosity, is there a reason why this place is so much higher?" I ask.

"Well, a lot of it is because of the finishes but it's also because it's the newest out of all of the condos that we've seen. It's just opened 6 months ago."

"How old are the other places?" Logan asks.

"The first place was built in 2001, the 2nd place was built in 1985, and the 3rd place was built just a year and a half ago."

"Sort of all over the place." I conclude.

"I know this place is super expensive but I still think you'd really like it." Cody insists.

I smile. "I'm sure we will. Let's go inside and see it."

We enter into the living room and it's a good space. It's very open but it's smaller than the ones we've seen. There's crown molding in this condo too. The room has a huge bay window with a window seat.

"I like this." I admit as I stretch out. I glance out the window then. "What a view. This would be a good place to just sit and type or play on my laptop."

The kitchen is adjacent to the living room. There's ceramic tile on the floor and the cabinets are made of stainless steel along with the appliances. It's very modern. There is a walk-in pantry next to the countertop by the sink.

I look towards the back of the condo and I see something interesting that I hadn't seen before in the other ones. "Where do the stairs go?"

"Up to the loft area." Cody explains. "Actually the loft area and then also the master bedroom."

"Are the other bedrooms upstairs?" Logan asks and Cody shakes his head.

"No, the guest bedrooms are down on this floor along with the office. Let me take you upstairs and show you what it looks like up there."

We follow him upstairs and the loft area is nice and wide open and overlooks the living room.

"What do you think we would do with this space?" Logan asks me.

I shrug. "I'm not sure. We could turn it into like an informal living room, I guess or kind of a game room area. We could put the pool table up here."

Logan nods. "That's actually a really good idea."

We follow Cody into the master suite. It's a huge, open space that has a sitting area. It's currently set up as an informal office from the looks of it. There are nice big windows in here too along with the crown molding.

"Very good use of space." I comment at the way things are set up.

We look at the master closet and it's actually quite a bit smaller than the others. It is still a walk-in, but between my clothes and Logan's clothes, we wouldn't have any real space for any additional clothes.

The next stop is the master bath. It does have dual sinks, a shower, and a jetted tub.

"What do you think?" Logan asks me.

"It's good sized." I conclude and then look around. "Wait, where's the toilet at?"

Cody opens a door next to the sink. "Private water closet."

"Excellent." Logan comments.

We head up to the rooftop deck then. It is still semi-private but we would only be sharing the space with one other condo and right now no one is in that space.

"Let's head back downstairs and I'll show you the rest of the condo. We follow him down the stairs and right off the kitchen is the office. There are some nice Cherry wood bookshelves in this office.

"What do you think, Logan?" I ask.

"It's pretty good sized. I think the other condo's office was bigger though."

It was. I'm 99.9% positive of that.

The guest bedrooms share a bathroom. It's a little small but it's workable, especially for right now it would just be used for guests. The half bathroom is actually right off the entrance. It's good sized, too.

"So what do you think?" Cody asks.

"It's a nice space." Logan tells him. "We haven't seen a loft space so it would be fun to put something up there. Everything looks great as far as finishes go."

There was a lot of Stainless Steel. Not that that is a bad thing but it just reminds me of it being ultra-modern. There were granite countertops, the ceramic tile, and the 24k gold fixtures in the bathroom. Yeah, I hadn't ever seen 24k gold fixtures before. Even in my grandparent's house. The builders may have went a little overboard with those here.

"The master closet is a little bit of a concern for me. I don't have a lot of clothes and Logan really doesn't either but I still feel that we wouldn't be able to put anymore than what we've got in there. The other thing is, while it's nice to have the guest bedrooms downstairs and the master upstairs, it wouldn't work for us when we have kids."

"Do you still want to keep it on your list?"

We both nod.

We finalize plans with Cody that we will let him know on Monday what we decide.

I nod. "Also I want to mention to you that more than likely whatever condo we pick, my grandparents will more than likely be coming out and looking at it before we purchase it. My grandpa kind of has to clear the purchase before I buy it."

"Sure, I understand." He tells me. "So we'll be in touch on Monday then?"

I nod again. "Yes, we will. Thank you for all of your help, Cody." I extend my hand to him.

"It's not a problem. I'm happy to help you out with your condo search and it was nice to meet you both."

"It was nice to meet you too." Logan shakes his hand then.

"We'll talk in a couple days then."

After we tell each other bye, we head back to my Prius. Logan has his arm around my shoulders.

"I'm starving." He declares. "How about you?"

"Famished." I admit. "What do you say we grab Chinese take-out and then head home and make pro/con lists on each of the condos?"

"Sounds good."

By the time we head home and grab take-out at one of our favorite restaurants in Palo Alto, it's an hour later. This day went so fast. I look at the clock when we walk in the door. It's 7:30.

"So how do you feel?" I ask Logan.

"Exhausted. You?"

"Ditto." We collapse on the couch together. "So what did you think? Do you think one of them we saw is "the one" or do you think we'll have to try this again next weekend?"

"They all had good attributes about them. All of them are in good neighborhoods and had good views of San Francisco."

"I feel a but coming on…." I inform him as I get up and trudge into the kitchen to grab the Chinese food we set down on the table.

"But all of them are so far away. None of them are really close to Palo Alto."

I sigh. I did realize that. "I know but Logan, in order to get everything we both wanted I had to look further out. I tried to get everything and the distance but it didn't work out." I inform him as I come back in from grabbing the food. "What do you want to drink? Beer? Scotch?"

"Beer's fine." I grab a bottle of beer from the fridge and grab myself a Coke. "OK, so are you typing or am I?"

"I can if you want." He reaches for my laptop. He flips it open and asks. "Hey, what's this?"

I look at the document that's minimized. "Oh, that's another thing we need to discuss." I click on it to bring it up.

"Which is what?"

"Our wedding song. We don't have a song, Logan. We've been together for three years and we don't have one. How is it possible it's been 3 years and we don't have a song?"

"I guess it wasn't overly important until now." He tells me then his eyes grow huge as he scans the list. "Jesus, Rory you've got like 50 songs on here."

I grin. "I know. They're all the ones I like and ones I think would make great wedding songs. All you need to do is go through the list and see which you like and we'll have that one be our wedding song. But minimize that for right now. Let's do the condos pro/cons lists first."

"OK." He brings up a spreadsheet. "The 1st place that was in the One Rincon Hill building. Pros: It's the cheapest." He types.

"It's got great views. It's got a balcony off the guest bedroom."

He types all of this down. "It's got a private rooftop deck. There's lots of storage. Stainless Steel appliances, Brazilian Cherry floors and cabinets."

"Now for the Cons: There's no office for you."

"The kitchen is cut off from the living room." Logan adds.

I take a bite of my sweet and sour pork. "No bathtub in the guest bath and also a stackable washer and dryer and we would have to pay extra for another parking space."

"OK so condo #2 in Pacific Heights. Pros are: the square footage, the kitchen is open to the living room…"

"The kitchen has great granite countertops and hardwood floors. There's a gas fireplace. Stainless steel appliances. Tray ceiling. Also it includes two parking spaces and it's underground parking."

"Now the cons: the prices, small office, the rooftop deck we would have to share with 3 other condos." Logan is typing at record speed. "Now #3 is the 1st of the 2 in the Russian Hill neighborhood. The pros: the square footage, it has 3.5 bathrooms, a huge office for both of us to fit."

I cut him off there. "Now seriously why do I need an office?"

He shrugs. "I just thought maybe in the future with the job you may want one. Whether it's just messing around on your computer or trying to do something for the office and I'm not saying you'll be bringing work home because I would never expect you to do that but I remember what you were like when you were editor at the Yale Daily News."

"I wasn't that bad." I argue quietly.

"I never said it was bad, I just meant I know how your mind works. We could set it up for both of us and if you choose to use it, it's there for you."

I nod. "OK." Back to the list now. "The rooftop deck was nice and I really like how that kitchen was done. The slate floors throughout the condo were amazing. The color scheme was actually really nice. This was the 1st condo that I thought had really decent colors and wouldn't require any kind of painting to me."

"There's surround sound in the living room, gas fireplace. Great storage including bookcases for all of your books." He types then takes a bite of Kung Pao Chicken.

"Crown molding, huge master closet, radiant heating in the bathroom floor."

"OK cons: Russian Hill actually has a ton of hills and this place is pretty expensive too." He pauses for a second as he glances over at me. "Can you think of anything else?"

I grin. "I actually can't."

"OK, so last condo. Pros: the loft was great, it's the newest out of the bunch, there's a pantry with the kitchen, Stainless Steel Appliances, ceramic tile in the kitchen and bathrooms. Crown molding throughout. Private water closet."

"The cons: The master suite is upstairs and that would be a negative for when we would have kids."

Logan gives me this knowing smile but doesn't say anything and just keeps typing.

"I've told you this, Logan. Yes, we don't have kids right now but this condo is going to be long term and we need to think about when we do have them."

"I know." He nods. "I'm not saying I never think about it because I do."

Well this surprises me. "Really? You have?"

He nods. "Of course, Ace. I think it'll be great when we finally have kids."

"How many do you see us having?" I'm overly curious now.

"As many as you want." He grins at me then gives me a kiss. "After all, you're the one who has to go through labor."

I groan. "Don't remind me."

"Even though we need to take it into consideration, I still think we should wait, though."

I nod. "Yeah, I agree. I think we should adjust to married life for a little while before we have kids. You just started on your job and I haven't even started mine so I think it should be awhile before we do."

"Good. I'm glad we're on the same page." He turns back to the computer. "OK we need to finish the list. What else for cons?"

"The huge price tag, there's less square footage, half a bathroom less, the master closet is a little small, and honestly, I think the fixtures are overly done." I tell him as I eat my rice.

Logan grins at me as he takes a drink of his beer. "What, you mean you don't like the 24k gold?"

"Something tells me a lot of the price is because of those fixtures. No, I don't."

"OK. So let's start ruling ones out. Honestly, I like the first one but I still think it should go mainly because there's no office."

"OK. And I think #4 should go because I think the price is ridiculous and the fixtures are too much. I mean the loft was nice, but to me it's still too overpriced."

"OK so that leaves #2 and #3." He glances over at me. "Which one is your favorite?"

"Honestly? Number 3. I just fell in love with that place when we saw it. I know it's still higher priced but we can always negotiate. Which one was your favorite?"

"Number three. It was very nicely done and there's a lot of space and storage space too."

"So what do you think?"

Logan grins at me. "I think we should call your grandpa tomorrow and have him come out."

"I think so too."

**One Week Later **

So we went ahead and called my grandpa Sunday afternoon and told him that we found a condo that we would like to move into and asked if he and my grandma wanted to come out and view it. He very eagerly took us up on our offer. He and grandma had arrived Tuesday morning and I took them first to Logan's office so they could see where he works and also picked him up so he could go with us. He had gotten clearance from Scott the day before.

My grandma was being a little overly critical of the place but I believe her overall consensus of the place was that she liked it. Grandpa, I think, really liked it. He asked Cody a lot of the questions that we did and when I told my grandpa this, he was actually very proud that I was so thorough.

We put in the offer that day at 3.4 million. The owners came back and countered with 3.75 million and we then countered again at 3.5. We ended up paying the $3.5 million. I have been researching and studying on how to negotiate. We close in 2 weeks and I'm so glad that not all of the boxes were completely unpacked. I mean, I kept some of the stuff stored because I knew we would be moving again before we got married.

Logan and I have now just gotten home from seeing my grandparents off at the airport.

"That went a lot smoother than I thought it would." I admit as plop down on the couch.

"Yeah, me too." He sits down beside me.

I sigh as I open up my laptop and see that word document still minimized. "Did you decide on a song for us to dance to?"

"Yes, I did…." He takes the laptop from me and points. "This one."

* * *

**OK...another cliffhanger mainly because I haven't completely decided which song to use yet. I spent A LOT of time researching condos on and also the names of the items I mentioned for the tile and the granite are their real names. I didn't mention the name of the bathroom granite but it's called Butterfly Jade. If you google any of the names you should be able to see pictures of them. The One Rincon Hill building is real but the others were made up. I personally customized what I would think their condo would look like. Anyway, sorry again it took so long and remember to review. I'll try and get the bachelor/ette party chapter done asap but since it's a double chapter it may take a little longer. By the way, I would have put the Emily/Richard dialogue in but this chapter was so long as it was. Sorry about that. Review please :D**


	19. Let the Parties Begin

**Happy New Year! I know it's been awhile and I'm sorry but it was a hard chapter to write. And super long. We're talking over 9000 words here. The double chapters tend to reflect it don't they? I typed over 4000 words just today. Here's the good news. I have already typed chapters 19-23. They were the ones I had written when I had writer's block. It'll faster now. There's a couple surprises that are going to happen after the wedding. By the way, 19 is the rehearsal dinner, 20 is Logan's night before the wedding, and 21's the wedding. Yea! Also Paris may seem a little OOC at the beginning of when I have the girls arrive but I think by the end you could probably see her acting the way she does. Also not a lot of dialogue from everyone. A LOT of it is still just Rory and Logan. Anyway, remember to review. Your reviews are the best! I will get chapter 19 out tomorrow. I promise. I'm going to do one final read through and then I'll submit it tomorrow. I hope everyone has a great and safe New Year! **

**Eight Days Before The Wedding**

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* * *

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My flight to New York leaves in a couple hours and I'm running around the condo trying to gather everything I need. I'm not going to be back until after the honeymoon. Logan has to work this week. It's only fair considering he's taking the following two weeks off. I know he wishes he could come back with me right now.

Logan comes in from his office and just watches me more around like I'm a chicken with my head cut off. "Slow down." He tells me as I narrowly miss hitting my leg on the edge of the bed. He makes his way over to me and takes a seat on the bed.

"I can't." I inform him as I rush in the bathroom to grab my makeup and my hair stuff.

"Rory…"

"What?" I ask as I come out and throw my stuff in my suitcase.

He grabs my hand and pulls me onto the bed with him. "You need to relax."

"Easier said than done." I tell him. "I'm trying to make sure I have everything I'm going to need for the wedding."

"If you forget something, it's not a big deal." He replies. "I'll just bring it with me on Friday. Just pack what you can remember."

I take a deep breath and slowly exhale. "OK."

He grins at me. "Good. So are you getting excited?"

"About the wedding? You have no idea. How about you? Are you getting excited?"

"About how it's 8 days and then you'll be Mrs. Huntzberger? I'm ecstatic about it."

"How about the fact that your family agreed to our terms on the prenup?"

"I'm shocked at that. I never thought that they would." He tells me honestly. "So much so, I made the lawyer review the paperwork like 4 times to ensure that there wasn't anything hidden."

"We're going to have an incredible wedding, aren't we?" I ask him and he gives me a knowing smile.

"Come on Ace…is there really any doubt?" He replies and I get quiet. Actually at the beginning I did have a few of them. They're gone now…for the most part.

I smile. "Nope, none." That's not really a lie. I know our wedding is going to be spectacular but I have still had some worst case scenarios dreams lately. He's aware of that though. "So what are you going to do during your last week of being a bachelor?"

He sighs. "Mainly just working. The guys will be flying in this afternoon. We'll probably have the bachelor party tonight."

"So are you going to a strip club?" I ask.

"No of course not." He says that rather fast.

I give him a knowing smile. "Really? You're not?"

"Nope."

"That's too bad. Of course it's not going to stop me from going to one."

"What?"

I nod.

"I thought that you were like morally opposed to strip clubs?"

"I never said that."

"Then why did you have a royal fit when we were going to go back when we were on our road trip?"

"Do you even remember that conversation? I said I had no problem with you going for your bachelor party because I had every intention of going to one for my bachelorette party."

"So you're fine with it?" He raises an eyebrow.

I nod. "It beats you going and lying to me about it."

"You think I would have went?"

"I know you would have. Now remember you are only allowed to look. That means no touching and definitely no sle…"

I get cut off because he leans over and kisses me. "Come on, Ace. Do you really have to finish that sentence?"

"Well, I would hope not."

"Come on, Rory. You trust me, don't you?"

"Yes of course I do."

"Then you have nothing to worry about."

I know he's right. We haven't had to deal with this 'gray area' issue in a long time. "You leave the sleeping with the stripper to the single guys like Robert, Seth and Finn."

"What are you talking about? Finn's getting kind of serious about dating only one girl."

I now raise an eyebrow. "Really? He's only dating one girl?"

Logan nods.

"Is it anyone I know?"

"Yeah, it sounds like it's Kelly, you know that girl he met when we were in New York for our road trip?"

"Wow!" That's actually very surprising to hear.

He looks over at the clock. "How much time do we have?"

"My flight leaves in an hour and a half."

Logan grins. "Good. We have plenty of time then."

He pulls me on top of him and kisses me. "Logan…" I say.

"What?"

"Are you really wanting sex again? We just had it like not even 12 hours ago." I remind him as he kisses my neck.

"I know but Ace you're going to be gone for a whole week so I'm trying to get my fill while I can."

I don't argue because he has a good point. A week does seem like a long time. I know it's not but the last time we went a week without sex was…well, Logan was still in London then. The longest we've went without sex since Logan came back is three days.

"OK." I give in. That's not a big surprise.

Twenty minutes later, I'm getting redressed and for some odd reason, Logan's just lying in bed watching me.

"You do realize that you're driving me to the airport, right?"

"Is that your way of telling me to get up and get dressed?"

"Yes and also…" I pause for a moment.

"What?"

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

He smirks. "Like what?"

"Like your trying to memorize what my body looks like so you don't forget?"

"Are you being a little paranoid?"

"No."

"Yes." He argues. "Besides," He pulls me back to him. "you're acting like I don't have your body already memorized. I do and I have for the last 3 years."

I smile at him. I have no doubt he's telling me the truth

"So how's your memory?" He asks. "Do you need a refresher?"

"I'm good, thanks." I tell him as I get up to finish packing. "I have a very photographic memory." I confess as I start to pack more stuff from the bathroom.

"Oh really?"

I nod. "Oh, yeah."

My flight now leaves in 20 minutes and we have just arrived at the Palo Alto Airport. I had managed to get everything into my carry-on and medium sized suitcase. I would have been able to get away using the small suitcase had I only been packing for a week but this is also my clothes for the honeymoon. Logan told me he planned to pack my clothes for the last week.

"So…have everything?" He asks.

"Yeah." I nod as I pull him close for a lengthy kiss. "OK, I better go."

"OK." He kisses me again. "Bye Ace. I love you."

I smile. "I love you too. I'll see you in a week."

"Call me when you get in, OK?"

"I will. I promise." One last quick kiss and I'm off.

Normally, the flight doesn't bother me but this time it did. It could have something to do with the fact that I'm flying by myself. I try to make the time go fast by reviewing my list of all the things that need to be done this week but honestly the more I think about it, the more it makes my head spin.

It's just after 9 when I arrive at JFK airport and quarter to 10 by the time I arrive at the hotel and get checked in. I ate on the flight so I don't have to worry about supper. Good thing too because the only thing that is really running through my mind right now is sleep. It's sad. I mean, it's still relatively early but that flight was draining!

I unpack and change into my pajamas and crawl into bed with my laptop. My cell phone is on the nightstand.

I go ahead and call Logan's cell phone number. It rings a couple of times before he answers. "Hey Ace. I was beginning to wonder about you."

"I'm sorry." I tell him. "I should have called you as soon as I got off the plane but I decided to wait until I got to the hotel."

"How long ago did you get to the hotel?"

"I got into my room about 5 minutes ago." Well, maybe closer to 10. I did change into my pajamas.

"How was your flight?"

I sigh. "It was long." I admit. "I forgot just how much of a distraction you can be on a flight."

"I'm a distraction?"

"Yes, a welcome one. Normally when we fly together the time goes so fast. It's been so long since the last time we have flown separate that I forgot how the time can drag."

"So what did you do?"

"Well, for a little while, I reviewed everything that needed to be accomplished this next week. I started to get overwhelmed then so I stopped."

"You need to pace yourself, Rory. Everything will be done in time. I promise."

"I'd believe you more if you were here instead of 3,000 miles away."

"I know. I wish I was there too. I would come sooner if I could."

"I know you would."

"What are you going to do tonight?"

I shrug. "Probably just watch some TV then go to bed. I might do some stuff on my computer."

"Such a party animal you are." He teases me.

"I honestly don't have the energy to do anything else." I pause for a moment. "You know speaking of partying did the guys make it there?"

"Actually, Colin called me while I was at work to tell me that they wouldn't be arriving until tomorrow morning. They're taking Finn's father's jet and flying tonight." He explains.

"Oh, OK. So you're by yourself, too." I conclude. "What are you doing tonight?"

"Not too much. I just got take out so I'm just going to stay here and watch TV."

"Yeah, you're a real party animal yourself, Huntzberger."

"Yeah, I know. So what are you going to do tomorrow?"

"Before the party? Probably do some shopping. My mom is due in early afternoon and I want to go get my attendant's presents. You got the guys tickets to Vegas didn't you?"

"Yeah, I have them staying there for the week while we're in the Turks and Caicos. What are you getting the girls?"

"Probably jewelry. I already have plum colored clutches for them."

"Jewelry is the easiest thing to buy." Logan concludes.

"Is that what you got me?"

"Nice try, Ace."

"Oh come on Logan." I plead.

"Are you going to tell me what you got me?" He asks and I sigh.

"No."

"Well, then no."

"It's mainly because I haven't bought it yet."

"You haven't?"

"Not yet. I'm doing that tomorrow."

"You're planning on doing a lot of shopping tomorrow, aren't you?"

"Yeah, I am." I glance over at the time. It's already after 10:30. "Hey, I'm going to go. I want to call my mom before it gets too late and then I'm going to bed."

"OK. So I'll probably talk to you tomorrow at some point then?"

"Yeah. Probably in the morning." I tell him.

"My morning or your morning?"

I laugh. "What you don't want me to call you at 9 tomorrow morning?"

"Nine my time is fine; nine your time I would prefer if you didn't."

"Duly noted." I reply. "OK, better go."

"OK goodnight Ace. I love you."

I smile. I know he loves me but I'll never get tired of hearing him say that. "I love you too Logan. Goodnight. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Sounds good. Bye."

"Bye." I hang up the phone and sigh. I call my mom and we have a brief conversation. She's going to stay with me tomorrow night and head back on Sunday and then come back on Tuesday. There's a huge convention going on Monday at the inn. She asked if I wanted her to blow it off and I told her no. I told her I would be fine. She'll be coming back on Tuesday though and staying for the rest of the week.

I'm off the phone within 10 minutes and asleep at 11:30. It doesn't take me too long to fall asleep luckily. Staying asleep, however, has been a problem the last few nights. I have the same dream I've been having for the last few nights. I dream we're at the wedding but I never get to the part where we say our vows all the way through. Something always causes me to wake up. I've heard Logan's parents object or Logan not even showing up. Of course out of the 2 scenarios I'm more willing to believe the former would happen rather than the latter. I don't think that Logan would ever ditch me at the altar. I think it's just a worst case scenario. It tends to be a restless sleep after that, though. I get up at just after 6. By the time I shower, get dressed, and eat breakfast, it's almost 9.

I ride in a cab to Tiffany's and look at jewelry. I spend about an hour and a half browsing around and looking at various pieces. All my bridesmaids and Lane are getting the same type of bracelet. I had wanted something that would go well with their dresses and be super elegant at the same time. Pearls were the first thing that came to mind. I found the perfect one for them so I moved on to the one I want to get my mom. It's a pearl bracelet too but in between each of them are silver open hearts.

The last thing I buy is Logan's present. I get some help for this. I decide I'm going to get him a watch but it was a matter of deciding on which one. After careful consideration I decide on a black alligator strap Atlas chronograph watch. I have the back engraved with our wedding date. I think he'll like it. Part of the reason I wanted this long to buy his present was mainly because I had the hardest time deciding what to get him. He'd like to believe he's really easy to shop for but he's not.

I'm back in my suite just before noon. I spent a good amount of money but in the end I think it was worth it. I never got a chance to check my email this morning so I do it then. I get about 7 emails in when a pop up comes up. It's a video chat invite from Logan. I made sure to pack the web cam so that way I could see him. I make sure it's set up and then hit accept. He's in our living room and I can see the guys in the background playing with the Xbox 360.

"Hey Ace."

"Hey." I smile at him.

"Hey Rory." I hear the guys call from the background.

"Hi guys." I wave to them. "So how did you sleep?" I ask.

He shrugs. "OK. It's been a long time since I slept in a bed without you there."

"I know." I nod.

He's frowning at me and squinting. "Rory…is my camera bad?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Are you OK? You don't look so good."

I groan. "Thanks."

"That's not the way I meant it. I mean, are you feeling OK?"

I sigh. "I'm fine. I'm just tired."

"Did you sleep at all?"

"Some; not much." I admit. "I'm going to take a nap before my mom and the girls get here."

"Were you having that dream again?" He is aware of the dreams I've been having. Mainly because when I wake up, I tend to wake him up. Not on purpose; just because I jump up in bed.

I sigh as a response.

"Rory, you know that would never happen."

"I know you would never leave me at the altar, Logan…" I get cut off then because the guys have now turned their attention to me.

"Rory, do you really think that Logan would do that to you?" Colin asks.

I shake my head. "I know in reality that he never would, Colin but right now it was sitting in my subconscious among all the possible things that could go wrong. That wasn't what I dreamt about though."

"What, my parents?"

"Why are you dreaming about Logan's parents?" Robert asks and I groan.

"Can't you guys go back to playing video games?" I ask and creep down closer to the computer screen. "Logan, go someplace quieter where I can talk to you alone."

He nods. "Hold on."

A minute later I see he's now in his office. He puts the laptop on his desk and heads back to the door and locks it. I don't see him do this but I hear the lock click.

"OK, it's just us now." He tells me.

"So when did they get there?"

"About an hour ago. Listen, Ace, I promise nothing bad is going to happen. I'll be there so I want you to stop worrying about that."

"Honestly, Logan I'm not worried about that. I know you well enough to know that you wouldn't do that to me."

"Good."

"I'm more worried about your parents."

"Rory, they're not going to stand up and object. If they do, they're going to be escorted out of the church. Nothing is going to stop me from making you my wife."

I give him a small smile.

"Seriously? That's the biggest smile that you're going to give me?"

I laugh and give him a bigger smile.

"That's better. Look, what I want you to do today is relax. Have fun. Have a drink or two or six. Go on and have a blast tonight."

"I'm going to." I confirm.

"Good. Look, I better go. We'll talk tomorrow, OK?"

I nod. "I love you."

He's grinning at me. "Love you too Ace. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Bye."

"Bye."

I close out of the conversation and shut my laptop. One week; there's only one week left until we're married. That is as long as everything goes according to plan.

* * *

I sometimes worry about just how much Rory is worrying. And of course the things that she worries about. I must admit I was surprised when she told me about the dream she had with me never showing up at the church. She knows me well enough to know that I would never do that to her. Marriage never even remotely entered my mind until Rory came into my life. She's the only one I could ever picture for my wife. If she was in the picture, I honestly don't think I would have ever considered marriage. It had never been a priority.

I close my laptop and head back into the living room. The guys are still playing video games.

"How's Rory?" Finn asks.

"She's fine."

All the guys start laughing.

"What?"

"That's not the first word that came to mind, Logan." Colin informs me.

"Yeah, she seemed like she was in a panic." Robert adds. "She's worried that you're not going to show up."

"No, she's not." I argue. "She's just under so much stress that she starts running through worst case scenarios. She knows I wouldn't do that to her."

"It sounds like she's more worried about what your parents are going to do." Seth comments.

I nod as I take a seat on the couch. "I think she thinks that they'll try and stop the wedding."

"Can you tell her with absolute certainty that they won't?" Robert asks.

I sigh. "No but I can confirm if they do try anything they'll be thrown out."

"Did that do anything for her?" Colin asks.

"I think it relaxed her a little. Of course I also mentioned how she should have a few drinks tonight. I think she really liked that idea."

"Speaking of tonight, is she aware of what our plans are?" Colin asks.

"She knows; she's fine with it."

"Really?" Finn raises an eyebrow.

"Yeah, she had no problem with it. I think it's because according to her they're going to a strip club too."

"They are?" Colin's mouth drops open. Apparently Stephanie left him in the dark.

"They are. It's hard to tell what they'll do mainly because Lorelai is planning it." I glance over at Colin and he looks pissed off. "What is your problem? It's OK for you to watch naked girls dance around but it's not OK for Steph to watch naked guys? That's a little hypocritical of you, Colin." I point out to him as I head into the kitchen to grab some juice.

He's ignoring what I just said. "I thought that Rory would be fuming at the prospect of you going to the strip club."

I shake my head. "Nope. She's fine with it. I think she realizes that bachelor parties and strip clubs are synonymous. And like I said, I'm aware of what she's doing tonight too."

"How many were going with her?" Seth asks.

I mentally count. "I think 7."

I think they're surprised. "Seven?" Finn repeats.

"Yeah, there's her mom, Lane, Sookie…"

"Who's Sookie?" Colin asks.

"That's Lorelai's chef at the inn. My sister was going, Steph, Paris…" I pause for a moment. "OK so it was 7 including her. What time do you want to leave?"

"Two." Finn tells me.

"We're going to spend all day at the strip club?"

"And what's wrong with that?" Robert is getting defensive.

"Nothing." I say.

"Not all of us have given up the lifestyle you used to be known for." He reminds me. "A few of us still enjoy it."

I smirk to myself. Apparently he's not aware that Finn's not the one of "them" anymore. He hasn't said anything about solely committing to just Kelly but from what he tells me, which still isn't much, he never talks about anyone else. I mean, it's been 5 months since he met her and he sees her almost every weekend.

"It's fine, Robert. It's not a big deal. I was just checking to see if we were doing anything else."

"Nothing else planned, mate." Finn informs me. "Just getting sloshed and watching the gorgeous naked ladies."

Is this sad that I'm mainly only going for the guys? Don't get me wrong; I'll enjoy going because let's face it what red-blooded guy wouldn't but honestly I would be just as happy playing poker all night. The real thrill I got from it when I was 18 or even 21 isn't there anymore. It's still going to be fun but my priorities in life have changed.

It's now 3 o'clock and we're at one of the strip clubs not too far from the condo. We rented a limo to drive us since we were sure none of us would be able to drive back. In the last hour I've finished a glass and a half of scotch. I'm trying to pace myself. It's going to be a long day. Of course this isn't stopping Finn from getting drunk in record time. He's already gotten a couple lap dances. I have had one but the whole time I was thinking about Rory. The other guys would probably call that pathetic but I don't care.

They don't look anything alike, Rory and the dancer. The dancer's hair is blonde and Rory's is more auburn. The dancer's chest, I'm willing to bet, has been surgically enhanced and Rory's…well, it hasn't and I like it that way. Every inch of her is natural and in my personal opinion perfect. There's nothing I would change about her. Well, except maybe her shyness about her body.

She's always been pretty timid, whether it's just after we've had sex or even if we're going swimming. I can't get her away from a 1 piece suit. I finally, after much coaxing, got her to agree to a bikini for the honeymoon. It's been a long process to get her to be comfortable naked just in front of me. Well, let me rephrase. Naked in front of me with the lights on. Lights off we never had a problem. I remember the very first night we spent together in her dorm room…

_**Flashback**_

_It's 1:30 in the morning and I wake up to the sound of rustling. It's dark in the room but I know Rory's not in bed. I flip on the light that is on her nightstand. She jumps. Apparently she thought I was going to be able to sleep through the noise._

"_Ace…what are you doing?"_

"_I was going to put my pajamas on." She tells me as she grabs them off the floor._

"_Why?" I ask._

"_I feel weird sleeping without them." She tells me as she flips the light out. "Go back to sleep. I'll be back in bed in a minute."_

_I flip the light back on. "Why are you turning the light off?"_

_She's hesitating though._

"_Rory, I've seen you naked. You're absolutely gorgeous." I tell her as I get out of bed and pull her to me. I give her a quick kiss. "Come back to bed."_

"_I will in just a minute."_

It took me probably 15 minutes to convince her to sleep sans pajamas. She finally agreed but she also slept with her back to me. Baby steps. After probably the 4th or 5th time we had sex she finally was able to sleep while facing me. Now she's very comfortable being au natural in front of me. The swimsuit thing is still an issue though. One I plan to break her of on the honeymoon. If that doesn't do it, the Life and Death Brigade trip will.

Another one of the dancers is now making her way over to me. I decide to send her over to Robert who has become very appreciative of my generosity.

"What's wrong, Logan?" Colin asks me.

"Nothing's wrong." I shrug. "Why?"

"You're just not acting like you're having any fun."

I drain the rest of my 2nd scotch. "Why? Do you mean because I sent the dancer over to Robert?" I stifle a laugh. "Trust me, he needs it more than I do."

"You know any other night I would have taken that comment as the insult you meant it as, Huntz, but today I'm so drunk I can't help but agree with you."

I shake my head and laugh and signal for another scotch. "I'm having fun, Colin. Believe it or not it doesn't have to involve some girl getting naked right in front of me. Well, unless of course it's my future wife." I grin as I take a drink of the new scotch that was brought to me. "That I really enjoy."

"Boy, Rory sure has you whipped, doesn't she?"

I scowl. "Why the hell would you say something like that? Of course she doesn't have me whipped. I really resent you for implying that."

"Fine. I'm sorry."

I get up from my seat though. I really don't need this crap. "You know what? You guys have fun. I'll see you when you get back."

"Where the hell are you going?" Colin yells.

"Home." I shoot back. "I don't need your attitude, Colin." I inform him as I head for the limo.

It takes 10 minutes to get home. My phone keeps buzzing. I check it every time and it's alternating between Colin and Finn calling. I keep hitting ignore though. I really have nothing to say to them.

I walk in the door and get on my laptop. I get on my Facebook page to see if Rory's on her page. It's probably getting close to when she's gonna leave for her party. She's not on but she's updated her status.

**Rory Gilmore- A week to go until it's Rory Huntzberger. I'm gonna party tonight but I still miss my fiancé. Love you Logan :D**

I break out into a huge grin. God, I miss her too. I really wish I didn't have to work this week. I go in and change my status too.

**Logan Huntzberger- I really miss you too, Ace. Love you too…**

I do a lookup on the internet and find florists in Manhattan. I place a call to one of them and see if they have calla lilies and see what colors they come in. They do have them and they name off about 12 colors they come in. I decide on pink lavender. I haven't seen a picture of them but I'm sure they're beautiful…just like my bride.

Calla Lilies are the flowers we're having for the wedding and we actually were able to get them in purple. They're dark but they seem to match the dresses the bridemaids will be wearing. I give a brief description of what I want the card to say.

It's really sappy and cheesy and maybe Colin is right in saying that Rory has me whipped but I don't care. With the stress she's been under I want her to know that I'm thinking about her.

It's about half an hour later I get a call from Rory. She just got my flowers.

"Thank you, honey." She tells me. "They're so beautiful. You didn't have to do that though."

I smile. "I wanted to. Are you getting ready for your party?"

"Yeah, we'll be leaving shortly. When are you and the guys going?"

"We left at 2. They're still at the strip club." I tell her as I lean back in the recliner.

"What do you mean they're still at the strip club? Where are you?"

"At the condo."

"Why? Shut the hell up, Paris!" She yells to her. "I'll talk to my fiancé for as long as I like. Hold on Logan."

I wait a minute and then she comes back on the phone. "Sorry about that."

"What did you do?"

"Just went into the bedroom. What happened with the guys?"

"Colin was just pissing me off. He was just being really rude. Apparently I wasn't enjoying the dancers the way I should."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the one that came over I sent over to Robert. I already had one come over and dance and that was enough for me."

"Really? You only had one dance?" She sounds surprised and I frown.

"Why is that so shocking to everyone?" I demand.

"I guess it's just surprising, Logan. So much so I bet he thinks I put you up to it and told you that you couldn't have any fun."

"Well…"

"He did, didn't he?" She sighs then. "Well, honestly that doesn't surprise me, either. I guess I could see how he would think that. So what, are you going to stay at home?"

"I don't know yet." I admit.

"Maybe you should go back to the party?" She suggests. "I know Colin was being a jerk but he's still your best friend and he's still your best man." She sighs. "If it makes you feel any better, think about the fact that I get to spend my night with Paris."

I laugh. "You've got a point, Ace. Yeah, I'll probably go back."

"Good. OK, I better go."

"OK. I love you."

"Love you too. Bye."

"Bye."

I hang up the phone and call for the limo. I head back to the strip club and find all the guys gathered around the table.

"Where the hell have you been?" Finn demands.

"I was at the condo. Why?"

"We've been calling you nonstop since you left." Colin tells me.

"I know. I've been hitting the ignore button. I really didn't want to talk to you." I admit honestly.

"Then why are you back?" Colin asks.

"Rory. She seems to think I should give you the benefit of the doubt even if you are acting like a dumbass. By the way, dumbass is my word."

"You called Rory?"

"Got a problem with that, Colin? Because, at this point, I'm willing to rework my attendants and cut you out completely. I doubt Finn would have a problem walking both Lane and Lorelai down the aisle."

"Two ladies? No problem at all, mate."

"This is my party, Colin and if I'd rather not spend it ogling at naked dancers that's my choice, OK? Rory had nothing to do with it. In fact, she was shocked by what I told her. Quit blaming her. The truth is, I don't get the same thrill out of it that I used to. Things are different now. Adapt."

Colin's keeping his mouth shut. Very smart decision.

I take a seat at the table and order a scotch. It's pretty quiet for a few minutes.

"So if you didn't want to come here Logan why didn't you just say so?" Finn asks.

"I never said I didn't want to come here. What I said was just because I've only had one lap dance, doesn't mean that I wasn't having any fun. If I want another one, I'll ask for one."

"Did you want to do something else?" Seth asks.

"We can stay here."

"Did you want to do something different though?" Finn asks.

"Like what?"

"I don't know. What else did you want to do? This is your party, Logan. Tell us what you want to do and we'll go do it." Finn says.

I sigh. "Honestly?"

"Yes, please." Colin groans.

"Let's just head back to the condo and play poker."

"OK. That's what we'll do then." Finn announces.

So we finish the drinks we have and head back to the condo. We play poker until about 2:30 in the morning. Overall, it probably wasn't the best party but it was still pretty good. I have to wonder how Rory's party went…

**

* * *

After I got done talking to Logan this afternoon when I got back from Tiffany's, I took a nap. It was after 3 when my mom gets to the suite. My mom has brought Sookie and Lane with her. Everyone is going to crash here for my party. I got everyone room for tonight.**

I swing the door open and all 3 are standing there. "Hey." I give them hugs.

"Hi hun."

"Hey Rory." Sookie and Lane say in unison.

"Rory, did we wake you up?" My mom gives me a once over and frowns.

"I hadn't slept too well last night so I just laid down for a little while. It's fine. Not a big deal."

"Are you sure?" Lane asks.

"Yeah, I had been sleeping for a couple hours. It was time to get up. How have you been Sookie?"

"I'm doing good, hun." She tells me. "How about you? All ready for the wedding?"

"I'm getting there. There's still so much to do during this next week."

"I know what you mean. I still have to bake and decorate all of your cakes."

"So yeah, you can relate then. By the way, I just want to thank you again. It means a lot to me that you're making the cakes. It does to Logan too but it means more to me because I've known you longer." I grin and she laughs.

"I'm happy you wanted me to make them for you. I was little surprised though you didn't want me to cater it for you."

"I don't want you to be working for my whole wedding." I state. "I want you to be able to enjoy the majority of it. All I need for you to do is set up the cake. Sound good?"

"Yeah." She nods.

"Good." I grin.

"What time is everyone else coming?" My mom asks.

"Around 6."

"Who's all coming?" Lane asks.

"There's Steph, Honor, Logan's sister, and Paris." I everyone groan then. "Yeah, I know but she is a bridesmaid."

"Maybe if she gets drunk, she'll mellow out." Lane suggests.

"We can always hope."

I order room service because I haven't ate since this morning. I get a couple different appetizers for all of us to split.

"So what's Logan doing this weekend?" My mom asks.

"He's having his bachelor party. The guys flew out there."

"Did he tell you what they're doing?" Lane asks as she grabs one of the nachos.

"Yeah and it was basically what I figured. They're going to a strip club."

"You're OK with that?" Mom asks.

"Yeah, better him being upfront with the truth than him lying to me. Besides, knowing you, you probably planned the same thing."

"Maybe I do, maybe I didn't. You'll have to wait and see." She teases.

The girls start to arrive shortly after 6. Paris is in a diva mode. God, if she's like this all night, we're going to have a serious problem. Honor arrives at quarter after 6. I make quick introductions because other than Stephanie Honor hasn't met any of them. Everyone is polite and very friendly to her…well, except for Paris. I threaten to cut her out of my wedding if she doesn't stop acting like a bitch. She pipes down for the moment. There's another knock on the door which I look around the room and see that everyone's here so I'm unsure of who would be at the door. I swing it open and see a flower delivery guy standing there.

"Rory Gilmore?"

"That's me." I tell him.

"These are for you." He hands me a huge bouquet of these lilacy colored calla lilies. I'm sure there's two dozen of them here just based on how big this bouquet is. They're all long stemmed too. God, he's so sweet. I can't believe he did this though. I set them on the table and flip the card open:

To my gorgeous bride,

I hope you have a blast tonight. I'm thinking about you.

I love you

Logan

"Wow! Those are gorgeous, Rory." Sookie gushes. "Are those lilies?"

I nod. "They are. They're calla lilies. They're the type of flower we're having for the wedding. The color for the wedding is going to be a darker purple but these are very pretty too."

"My brother is such a romantic." Honor comments.

I grin. "Yeah, he can be. I think part of it though is the fact that he knows I've been under so much stress and having dreams of all the potential things that could go wrong that he may have sent them to put my mind at ease."

"Everything is going to go great, Rory." Honor confirms. "My brother loves you so much. I always knew that the two of you would end up getting married."

I grin. I had some dreams about that too back in the early days of us dating. I actually dreamt about it a lot. But the reality has been even better than the dreams I've had. "OK, I need to call him." I decide and get my cellphone. I push #2 which is his cellphone.

"Rory come on! Let's go already!" Paris whines. God, she's sounding just like a 3 year old.

"Shut up Paris!" I scream at her right before Logan picks up. "Hey. Thanks honey. They're so beautiful. You didn't have to do that though."

"I wanted to." He tells me. "Are you getting ready for your party?"

"Yeah. We'll be leaving here shortly. When are you and the guys going?"

"We left at 2. They're still at the strip club."

I frown at that. "What do you mean they're still at the strip club?" Everyone looks up. "Where are you?"

"At the condo."

"Why?" I hear Paris start to complain in the background about how long I'm taking so I whip around and glare at her. "Shut the hell up, Paris! I'll talk to my fiancé for as long as I like. Hold on Logan." I head into the bedroom and close the door. "Sorry about that."

"What did you do?"

"Just went into the bedroom. What happened with the guys?"

"Colin was just pissing me off. He was just being really rude. Apparently I wasn't enjoying the dancers the way I should."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, one that came over I sent over to Robert. I already had one come over and dance and that was enough for me."

"Really? You only had one dance?"

"Why is that so shocking to everyone?" He snips.

"I guess it's just surprising, Logan. So much so I bet he thinks I put you up to it and that I told you that you couldn't have any fun."

"Well…"

"He did, didn't he?" I sigh. "Well, honestly that doesn't surprise me, either. I guess I could see how he would think that. So what are you going to stay at home?"

"I don't know yet." He tells me.

"Maybe you should go back to the party. I know Colin was being a jerk but he's still your best friend and he's still your best man." I pause for a moment. "If it makes you feel any better, think about the fact that I get to spend my night with Paris."

He's laughing. "You've got a point, Ace. Yeah, I'll probably go back."

"Good. OK I better go."

"OK. I love you."

"Love you too. Bye."

"Bye."

I hang up the phone and head back into the living room. All the girls are waiting for me.

"Everything OK?" Sookie asks.

I nod. "Yeah, everything's fine. He just got into a fight with Colin and left the party. He's going to go back though."

Steph sighs. "Did he say what they were fighting about?"

"Something about how he didn't think Logan was having fun since he hadn't had many lap dances."

"Colin himself better not be having many lap dances because if he does, he's going to get his ass kicked by me." Steph informs me and I laugh. "Especially since he didn't mention to me what they would be doing."

I frown. "He didn't?"

She shakes her head. "Nope. I figured they would be but he never mentioned it so I didn't bother telling him what we would end up doing."

I laugh.

"Did Logan have any?" Leave it to Paris to ask.

My eyes narrow. "One. Why?"

"Just curious."

God, this is going to be a long night. "Why do you care?"

"No reason."

"Paris just say whatever it is you're going to say and get it over with."

"Do you really think he's only had one?"

"Yes, I do." I state matter of factly. "He has no reason to lie to me and I have no reason not to trust him." I inform her as I grab my purse. "Like I said before, stop acting like a royal bitch or I'll cut you out of my wedding. I don't need this, Paris. I have enough stress in my life without you passing judgment. Keep your opinions to yourself. If you can't do that, go home to Doyle."

"Fine." She huffs.

I put my phone in my purse and tell everyone let's go. We head out and take a limo down to 11th Street. We climb out and look around.

"Where are we?" I ask.

"Come see." My mom grins as she leads me in.

As soon as I step in and gaze around, my mouth gapes open. It's a prom. Not only a prom but it's an 80's themed prom. "OK so what is this?"

"It's the Awesome 80's prom." She tells me. "I had been doing some research on the internet on what to do and I thought, I never had a prom and then I remembered, neither did you. I thought it would be fun."

It looks very cool. I mean, everyone is dressed in 80's attire. A lot of teased hair and taffeta prom dresses. Guys in tuxes and super gelled back hair. This would have been my mom's prom for sure but mine would have been a little different. Regardless it looks like fun.

"Hello ladies. I'm Amber. Welcome to the Awesome 80's prom."

We all greet her nicely and for once so does Paris. I think she's stunned by what my mom chose to do.

"So I hear everyone's here tonight for a bachelorette party, right?"

We all nod.

"Where's the lucky bride to be?"

"Right here." My mom points to me.

"Hi, what's your name?" She shakes my hand.

"Rory."

"Nice to meet you, Rory. Why don't you come with me and we'll find some nice accessories for you? Ladies, I'll be back shortly for you to get some too."

"So when are you getting married?" Amber asks me as she leads me back into a room that has every type of 80's accessory you can think of: the headbands, the chunky necklaces, big earrings, and makeup.

"In a week."

"Excellent. OK so we have a lot of types of tiaras."

"Tiaras?" I raise an eyebrow as I get lead to a mirror and below the mirror there's about 7 different colors with tiaras. They all say on them in rhinestones, "Bride to Be". I settle for a blue one.

"Oh, almost forgot." Amber heads off and comes back with a yellow sash that says "Most Likely to Get Married" then below it, it has the Awesome 80's Prom. "That's for you too."

I start laughing and slip it on. Amber tells me that she's going to get everyone else. They come back a few minutes later.

"You look good, hun." Mom grins.

I thank her and then Amber tells them to dig into whatever accessories they want. Everyone pretty much goes crazy. This is pretty awesome. We party with everyone and spend a lot of time dancing. I don't tease my hair but I am sporting the jewelry and heavier makeup. We take tons and tons of pictures because it's something I'm going to definitely have to show Logan.

We leave the party around 11. They let me keep my sash and tiara. They're nice keepsakes.

"OK, ladies, the party's not over." My mom announces.

I look surprised. "It's not?"

"Of course not." Sookie tells me.

"What would be a bachelorette party without strippers?" My mom grins and everyone cheers. "Come on ladies, let's go."

We head to a strip club about 15 minutes from the Awesome 80's Prom. They give us a private room in the back and put two male strippers back there with us. They're cute, I'm not going to deny it. I spend most of my time laughing though because Paris is acting like a lush. It took about 5 drinks between when we were at the Prom to now for her to like completely loosen up but she finally did. So much so, she got up and was dancing right along with the guys. Thank god, she didn't take anything off though but she was dancing pretty close with them. To commemorate this for her, my mom got out her digital camera and turned on the camcorder option and taped it. We'll just keep this for a laugh. That and if she gets to acting like a diva, we'll offer up to show it to Doyle.

"OK." My mom tells everyone. "Time for presents." The guys go on break for a little while. "This is from your grandma. She figured you probably wouldn't want her here because of what we're doing right now but she wanted me to give this to you."

She hands me an envelope. I open it up and it's a gift certificate to a spa and to get a manicure and pedicure done also.

"Oh, by the way, it's going to be you, me and her going on Friday."

"Friday?" I look at her and frown.

"Before Logan gets in so don't worry."

By the end of presents, I have gotten lingerie from my mom, chocolate body paint from Lane, a Kama Sutra kit that is Strawberry and Champagne scented and of course a pocket size of the book from Sookie and Honor and Stephanie give me Victoria Secret gift cards. Paris…well, she got me a vibrator.

"Cause you just never know, Rory. This is going to be for those nights when you want to have sex and Logan's just not in the mood. You need something to fall back on." She tells me as she sips her 6th drink.

"Do you actually have a vibrator, Paris?" I ask her as I sip my 2nd martini of the night.

"Of course I do." Everyone is quietly laughing. "I'm not ashamed to admit it. There are times that Doyle just refuses to give me what I need. I had to come up with something."

Wow! More than I really needed to know. "Well, thank you for the present, Paris and I'll make sure to keep it on standby. Hopefully I won't need it for a very long time."

"What are you talking about? Are you actually saying that it doesn't matter what time of day it is that any time you want to sex that Logan is more than willing?"

"I'm not going to go deep into this considering Honor is Logan's sister and I'm sure that she doesn't want to hear the details but basically yeah. He's never turned me down."

"So even if he's been super busy at work…"

"Sex is a great stress reliever, Paris. It seriously doesn't take too much to convince him."

I've stunned her and everyone has just huge grins on their faces. This is how I'm going to remember this night. Paris may have technically slept with more guys (well, just one more) but given what I just found out I think I've actually had more sex than her. Not that I don't feel sorry for her. I do but still not enough to erase that video of her dancing along with the strippers.

It's 11 o'clock the next morning when my phone goes off. It's not my regular ringtone though. It's Love of a Lifetime by Firehouse. It's our wedding song.

"What the hell is that noise?" My mom grumbles next to me.

"It's my phone. It's Logan. Apparently he changed my ringer to our wedding song." I tell her as I reach on the nightstand.

"You picked a Firehouse song for your wedding song?"

"Yeah. I picked a bunch and then Logan picked the final one." I hit send. "Hey." I yawn.

"Hey Ace. How was the party?"

"Good. Had a lot of fun. I'll have to email you the pictures."

"What did you do?"

"First we went to the Awesome 80's Prom…"

"Prom?" He asks.

"Yeah, it was a blast. The pictures are pretty funny. You'll love them. Then we went to the strip club…"

"So did you get any lap dances?"

"No but it was an interesting experience watching Paris dance with them."

"She what?"

"Oh yeah."

"Did she strip?"

"No thank god. I still got it on tape though."

He dies laughing. "I want to see that video."

I grin. "Trust me, you will. How did the rest of your party go?"

"Good we came back here and played poker."

"Did you boys make up?"

"Yeah, we did. Everything's fine." He tells me. "So did you get presents too?"

"Oh yeah."

"Anything that I'm going to enjoy too?"

"Almost all of them. The only one you wouldn't is the spa day I get to spend with my grandma and my mom Friday before you get here."

"So what did you get?"

"Lingerie from my mom…"

"Ooo…what color?"

"Red."

"I can't wait to see that." He remarks. "What else?"

"Sookie got me a Kama Sutra kit including the book…"

"Why is it that we don't even have one of those yet?"

I laugh at him. "We do now. Anyway, Lane got me chocolate body paint…"

"We're going to have some fun with that on the honeymoon." He concludes.

"Your sister and Steph got me gift cards to Victoria's Secret…"

"You need to go shopping at some point this week and spend them."

"Way ahead of you. And finally…Paris got me a vibrator."

"Why on earth would she get you a vibrator?"

"Because there's going to be times when you're just not going to be in the mood and I need a backup plan."

"Did you tell her how many times a week we have sex?"

"No because your sister was sitting right there and I'm sure that would be considered TMI for her. I told Paris though that we've never had that problem and pretty much figured it would be a very long time before we would."

"Very very long time." Logan confirms.

"Hey when did you change my ringer?" I change subjects now.

"The day before you left. It's just set for when I call you. That's probably why you haven't heard it until now. Actually the song is set on mine too for when you call."

"Six days to go." I tell him.

"Yep, six days to go until I marry my 'love of a lifetime'." He answers.

* * *

**Yea! It's super long but hopefully you liked it. As for the wedding song, it's the original one I picked. I think it describes them well. There were a lot of good ideas and I appreciate it. Anyway, the Awesome 80's prom is real and if anyone has been to one I'm sorry if this isn't the way it goes but the website doesn't give you much to go on. I just mainly read the main page and looked at the pictures. I thought it would be fun for them to do it though. My cousin who's a big Gilmore Girls fan told me she could see Lorelai and Rory doing this. Anyway, remember to review and of course the good news is that 19 will be out tomorrow.**


	20. The Rehearsal Dinner

**Well, it's here; chapter 19 as promised. Thank you to the ones who have reviewed. This is another really long chapter. I have to work the next 4 days so I will get 20 out sometime this week but it may not be until Thursday. Also...a note about this chapter. I know the reality of the tapes in this chapter are a little far fetched but I thought it was cute when I wrote it months ago. Anyway, remember to review. If I get a good amount of reviews, I'll make sure to get 20 out sooner than Thursday :D Hope you like it!**

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My god the last 5 months have gone unbelievably fast. I can't believe it's already the day before the wedding. I'm so excited…and nervous. Incredibly nervous. I'm not exactly sure why though. I mean, Logan and I have been together for 3 years now. There should be no nervousness at all.

I'm sitting in my bridal suite going over my list of things that I still need to take care of. Logan's flying in from Palo Alto and should be arriving within the next hour or so depending on the traffic. The rehearsal starts at 7:30 and the dinner follows shortly after. Everyone who was invited all RSVP'd including my dad's mom, Logan's parents, and his grandpa. I think after the last dinner we had with them their opinion of me may have changed. Especially his mom and his grandpa's. Mitchum and I have been able to tolerate each other. It's just more or less Shira.

My phone starts to buzz and I check the caller ID. It's Logan.

"Hey honey." I balance the phone against my ear and start to type furiously on my keyboard.

"Hello my gorgeous bride."

I stifle a laugh. "Logan…"

"What? It's the truth."

"So where are you?"

"I'm just leaving JFK."

"Really?" That surprises me. "You're already in New York?"

"I am. I should be at the hotel within half an hour."

"Sounds good."

"I'll see you soon. I love you, Ace."

"I love you too Logan." I hang up and turn my attention back to my laptop. Our reservations and plane tickets to the Turks and Caicos are set and I packed Logan's passport along with mine. I have everything I'm going to need…well, except for the Life and Death Brigade trip. According to Logan he's taking care of it. I know I shouldn't be nervous about it but I am. All of our friends are telling me not to worry about it but I still do. Their reassuring is doing absolutely nothing for me.

A wave of nausea hits me and I sprint to the bathroom. The combination of making sure this wedding goes off without a hitch and that stunt has my nerves in a frenzy.

I hear the door swing open just then and my mom calls out to me. "Hello! Fruit of my Loins!"

"Hold on mom!" I yell back. "I'll be out in a minute." I grab my toothbrush and put some toothpaste on it and vigorously brush my teeth. I come back into the living room and see my mom sitting on the couch staring at me inquisitively.

"You OK, kid?" She gets up and hugs me.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I nod.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I've just been getting so frazzled to make sure everything is ready that my nerves are shot."

"Hun, that's why your grandma hired the wedding planner." My mom reminds me. "To avoid that from happening. Did you let her do her job at all?"

"Yeah, somewhat."

"Rory…from now on let them do their job. Your wedding will be perfect."

I smile. I think it will too. At least I'm hoping so. "Hey, why don't you go try on your dress? I just want to make sure that the last minute alterations turned out OK."

"Oh, give me a break mom." My mom whines. "You still can't even tell I'm pregnant."

I still sometimes find it hard to believe that after 23 years my mom finally decided to give me a brother or sister. She and Luke had a civil ceremony last month and plan to have a church wedding after the baby is born. She is right though. Even with being almost 4 months pregnant, you can't even really tell unless you were really looking.

"Please humor me." I hand her the dress.

"Yes mother." She takes off for the bathroom which is inside the bedroom. I hear the bathroom door click shut and rustling of clothes.

There's a knock on the door then and I rush over to answer it. I swing it open and find my soon to be husband standing there.

"Hey Ace." He leans down and kisses me then envelopes me in a huge hug.

"Hi honey."

"Rory, did you remember to get strapless bras to wear with these dresses because otherwise this just won't work…" My mom comes out in her dress with her very visible red bra straps showing and sees Logan then turns red herself. "Oh, hi Logan."

Logan grins. "Hi Lorelai. You look beautiful."

My mom groans. "No I don't but thank you." She spins around and heads back into the bathroom. "Thanks for that warning Rory."

"What?" I laugh. "He knocked. It's not my fault that you didn't hear it." I turn my attention to Logan. "So how was your flight? Did you get everything squared away at work for the next couple weeks?"

"The flight was OK and everything is taken care of at work." He tells me. "How have things been going here? I wish I could have been here sooner."

"Don't worry about it." I shrug. "Everything is good."

"How are your nerves?"

"They're relaxing now. They have been on alert though."

"Ace, what happened to the wedding planner? You were supposed to be using her. That's why your grandma hired her."

"You sound just like my mother." I complain.

"What was that?" My mom comes back out and joins us as she's zipping up her garment bag that has her dress in it.

"You and Logan are thinking alike."

"Great minds usually do." Mom answers.

"Amen to that." Logan grins.

"Well, I better get going." She says as she heads for the door. "I'll see you tonight at 6:30."

"Do not be late."

"I would never. Bye hun. Bye Logan."

"See ya Lorelai."

The door closes and I rush over and put the security latch across the door.

"Now why did you do that?" He teases as I saunter towards him.

"You know why." I tell him right before I kiss him. I lead him into the bedroom. I climb onto the bed and pull him on top of me.

"You really think someone will walk in on us?" He whispers in my ear and I giggle.

"Come on Logan. Think about my family. They've all done it before at one point or another…well, except for Gigi. Thank God, that hasn't happened."

He laughs as he kisses me again. "God, I've missed you."

"I've missed you too. It's been a long week." I tell him as I take off my shirt and go to work unbuttoning his shirt. "You know, this is going to be the last time we have sex before we're a married couple."

"Are you about to wax philosophical, Ace?" He grins as he throws his shirt on the floor.

"Maybe. Can you believe at exactly this time tomorrow we'll be at the church saying our vows?"

"Really?" He raises an eyebrow. "At this exact time tomorrow?"

"Logan…"

"What? You said it."

"OK well then let me rephrase. We'll be at the church in the middle of the ceremony. I don't know what part we'll be at but the ceremony will be going on."

"That's better." We lose the rest of our clothes and finish making love.

We lay in bed for the next hour and at quarter after 5 I decide I better get up and get ready. I send Logan to his suite and I hop in the shower. Twenty minutes later, I get out and dry my hair. I change into my dress I got the first time I went to Macy's in San Francisco. It's a sapphire color, silk chiffon bodice Adrianna Papell dress that just looked so pretty I just had to buy it. Logan likes it whenever I wear sapphire. He says it makes my eyes even bluer. I return to finish curling my hair and putting on my makeup. I take my time putting it on though because the last thing I did is for it to be too overdone. By the time I finish with everything, it's 20 after 6. Everyone should be arriving soon.

I hope and pray to God that this night goes smoothly. Great. Now my stomach is starting to churn again. I wouldn't worry so much but my dad hasn't met Logan's parents and the meeting my mom had with Logan's dad was not the greatest. Plus she hasn't met his mom. For some odd reason I think there may just be an explosion. I hope to God I'm wrong.

There a knock on the door and I look over the clock on the wall and see it's 6:35. I rush over to the door and open it finding Luke and my mom in their dress attire.

"Hi. Come on in." I move out of the way to let them in.

"Hey Rory." Luke gives me a hug and kisses my cheek. "You look beautiful."

"Hey Luke. Thank you." I whisper to my mom. "You're late."

"No, I'm not." My mom fidgets. "The clock's fast."

"Uh-huh."

There's another knock on the door but it is a softer sounding one. It doesn't take me long to figure out who it is. I open the door and see Gigi standing there with my dad and his mom behind her.

"Hi Rory." She launches herself at me to give me a hug.

"Hi sweetie." I tell her.

"Hey kiddo." My dad gives me a hug and a kiss.

"Hi dad, grandma."

"Hello Rory. You look beautiful." Francine comments.

"You do, Ror."

"You look like a princess Rory."

"Well, thank you." I reply as I head into the bedroom to get Gigi's present. "So Gigi, I thought while we wait for my grandma and grandpa to show up that you might like to open the present that Logan and I got you for being our flower girl."

"Really?" Her eyes light up.

I nod. "Sure." I take a seat on the couch. "Come here and sit next to me and open it."

She jumps up onto the couch and I set the present down in her lap. She quickly tears into it much to the dismay of Francine.

She opens the box and finds a tiara then proceeds to scream with joy.

"Gigi!" My dad chides her. "We do not scream."

"Sorry."

"Now you can look like a princess tomorrow." I tell her.

"Can I wear it tonight?" Her eyes are hopeful.

"Sure." I remove it from the box and carefully place it on her head. While I'm doing this there's another knock on the door. "Mom, could you get the door for me, please?"

My mom goes and opens the door and it's my grandparents.

"Hello, Lorelai." My grandma greets her politely.

"Hi mom, dad."

"Hello, Lorelai." My grandpa responds.

"Hello Francine. " My grandma air kisses her. "It's lovely to see you again."

"Hello Emily, Richard. It's lovely to see you too."

They finish exchanging pleasantries while I get my shoes on and with 5 minutes to spare, we start to head downstairs.

"Where's Logan?" Gigi asks me.

"He's downstairs with his family waiting for us."

"Let's go." She starts to run for the door.

"You heard her. Let's go." I grab my purse and head for the door. We all manage to crowd into the elevator and aside from Gigi's fidgeting, it's a quiet ride.

As soon as the door opens on the ground floor she bolts. I take off behind her in an effort to catch her. As I flee down the corridor, I hear Francine criticize my dad and tell him that he needs to teach Gigi better manners.

Logan and his family along with our friends are waiting near the exit. As soon as he comes into her line of vision, Gigi starts yelling to him. He glances her way and grins. When she gets to him she leaps into his arms.

"Hey Gigi. You look pretty." He comments.

"Thank you for my tiara. I really really love it." She hugs him which makes my heart skip a beat.

"Well, you're welcome. You know when Rory and I were deciding what to get you, we thought you should look like the princess you are and have a tiara."

"Rory says I can wear it tonight."

"Well that was nice of her."

"Rory looks like a princess too." She tells him as I finally catch up to them. I'm a little short of breath and trying to put my heels back on. I had to take them off to catch up to her.

"No, I really don't but thank you anyway, Gigi."

"Yes you do. You look like Belle." Gigi argues.

"You know what? I think you're right, Gigi. She looks like Belle." Logan answers.

"Logan…"

"Oh, humor her Ace." He puts her down and gives me a quick kiss. "You look gorgeous."

"Thank you. Hello, Shira, Mitchum, Elias. Hi Honor." I give her a quick hug as I try to recapture my normal breathing.

"Hey Rory. Any jitters?"

"About the ceremony itself? No." I shake my head. "About making sure that everything goes off without a hitch? Yes. Hi Josh." I shake his hand.

"Hi Rory. Good to see you."

"You too. Logan, did you make introductions?" I ask.

Logan lifts Gigi back into his arms. "So Gigi, this is my dad, my mom, my grandpa, and this is my big sister Honor and her husband Josh. Everyone, this is Gigi, Rory's little sister."

His parents and grandpa politely say hello but Honor extends her hand to her. "It's nice to meet you, Gigi. You look very pretty with your tiara."

"Thank you, you're very pretty too." Gigi shakes her hand.

Honor smiles. "Thank you."

"Have you ever been a princess?" Gigi asks and Logan and I share a laugh.

"Oh a long time ago." Honor tells her.

"Are you kidding? You still are." Josh retorts. Honor smacks her husband's arm and we laugh again.

My dad now catches up to us and he's not happy to say the least. Logan puts Gigi down on her feet.

"Georgia Grace Hayden, if you don't quit running around and start acting like a big girl, not only will I take away that tiara but you will not be the flower girl tomorrow."

"Daddy!" Gigi whines. "Rory!"

"I'm sorry sweetie. I have to go by what dad says on this one." I frown at him. "Although I do think that taking away her flower girl title is a little extreme." I crouch down, "Just promise me that you'll stop running around and you can keep the tiara and you'll still be the flower girl, OK?"

"OK." She nods.

Then comes the moment I've been dreading: the parent introduction. I wait for my mom and Luke to arrive then make a quick introduction. All of my grandparents then arrive.

"Hello, Mitchum, Shira, Elias." My grandma says in her usual tone.

"Hello, Emily, Richard." Shira answers in a fake cheery voice.

"Tell me, have you met Francine Hayden, Rory's other grandmother?"

"Don't worry, Emily." Francine responds frigidly. "They know me. They know me well. Tell me Elias are you and Shira treating my granddaughter like the exceptional young woman she is or have you continued to trash her?"

"Well-ell." I cut her off. "On that note, we need to get going to the church for the rehearsal." I grab Logan's hand and yank him with me. We have 2 limos and divide into the groom's side and the bride's side with the exception of Honor and Josh riding with Logan and Steph and Colin riding with me. We arrive at St Paul's Chapel in less than 10 minutes. Everyone slowly filters out of the limos and into the church. I'm last to go in because I just need a moment to collect myself and take a few deep breaths. I take a seat on the chapel steps and release the big breath I had just taken in.

"Ace?" I turn around when I hear Logan's voice. "What are you doing? Come on." He takes a seat next to me.

"I need reassurance, Logan."

"On what?"

"That tonight and the rest of this weekend will go smoothly. Because just now with my grandma and your grandpa, I'm all of a sudden having a 'Romeo and Juliet' type moment."

"Is this your secret way of telling me that you're going to kill yourself?" He jokes.

I sigh. "Logan, I'm being serious here. Our families hate each other."

"So what? Forget about them. None of that matter anyway as long as we love each other."

I smile at him.

"Right?" He asks.

I nod. "Right. I love you so much."

"I love you too, Ace." He kisses me then my mom joins our little party.

"OK, come on kids. Let's get this show on the road. Time's a wasting and Gigi's getting hungry."

Logan helps me up. "Mom…" I give her a knowing look.

"OK, fine. I'm getting hungry. The baby's hungry. I'm eating for two, you know."

Logan and I laugh as we head back inside.

The whole rehearsal takes 20 minutes before we get back in the limos. Everyone seems to act civil which helps to alleviate some of my stress. Logan notices that too.

We all gather in the ballroom of the hotel to have dinner. Technically Logan's parents were supposed to pay for the dinner but doing that would have made me feel indebted to them and that was the last thing I wanted. The dinner's excellent. The people we hired to cater the wedding also catered tonight's dinner. As we're eating our dessert, which is yummy triple chocolate cake, Mitchum gets up and makes a speech. It's thoughtful, I must admit. At the end, we toast to him welcoming me to the Huntzberger family.

I shield my mouth with the back of my hand and whisper to Logan, "Did Hell freeze over?"

"Don't question it; just enjoy it." He tells me.

Then all three of my grandparents stand up at the same time. This should be interesting.

"We would also like to toast Rory and Logan." My grandma starts. "And extend our congratulations to the happy couple. Rory, you're an amazing young woman and we could not be more thrilled that you and Logan are getting married."

"Who would have thought that many moons ago at the Yale Alumni party we threw that Rory would actually be marrying one of the gentlemen she met?" Grandpa laughs.

"Well, we'll let them think that." I whisper to Logan and he grins at me.

"And now an announcement to make." Francine clears her throat. "Back when my late husband was alive, we met with Emily and Richard to discuss Rory's future. We had a nice lengthy discussion about Rory's future and Straub and I found out that she had aspirations to be a journalist. While we knew she would be an excellent journalist we also wanted to ensure her future regardless of what she chose to do. After much consideration on our part and along with Emily and Richard, we reached the joint decision that as of tomorrow when she marries Logan, Rory will become the heiress to both the Gilmore and Hayden fortunes."

Everyone, except for Logan's parents and grandpa, applaud. They're just too in shock. The looks on their faces are priceless.

"Amazing." I murmur to Logan and he just grins. He likes their reaction just as much as I do.

I see Shira, who is looking flustered, whisper to Logan, "Did you know about this?"

"Of course, I knew." He tells them. "I knew about it 5 months ago when she found out. By the time everything is said and done, she'll have almost a quarter of a billion dollars."

"It's just outstanding all the things that old money can do." I tell them as I finish polishing off my cake. "The girl who you thought wasn't good enough for your son, Shira is actually worth than the fortune he'll be getting from you." I quickly look over at Logan, "No offense, dear."

Logan just smirks. "None taken, Ace."

They're still pretty speechless by the time they head up to their room at ten-thirty. Gigi falls asleep shortly after they leave and Francine excuses herself for the night and carries her up to the hotel room. Mom's parents turn in for the night then too. It is now just the wedding party minus Gigi with their plus ones.

"OK, may I have everyone's attention please?" Finn gets up in the middle of the room as Colin drags in a cart that has a platform and a laptop. He goes to work assembling things together while Finn continues. "I'm Finn Morgan and I'm Logan's best man."

Colin, ever jealous, clears his throat to remind Finn of his presence.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Geez, Colin. Relax. This is Colin McCrae and we are Logan's best men. As such we decided to pay a little tribute to our Golden Couple, Rory and Logan."

Everyone starts to applaud and I blush. Logan reaches over and grabs my hand and kisses it.

"I've got a confession darling." Finn informs me.

"Should I be glad that my 6 year old sister has left the room?" I joke and everyone laughs.

"It's something that I never told you. Remember how in the beginning when we'd meet and I acted like we had never met before and you'd have to keep reintroducing yourself?"

"Yes."

"Well, I actually do remember every time I met you. I remember the first time I saw you and I remember what I was thinking when I saw you and Logan in that hallway outside your dorm room."

"Which was what?"

"That Logan had finally met his match."

Everyone responds with an aww…

"I will tell all of you that these two, even in the very beginning before they got together as a couple, were very entertaining with their banter…"

I glance over at Logan, "Did we banter a lot?"

"Yes, we did and I always enjoyed every second of it."

"It's just really too bad that you didn't tape any of it." I tell Finn sweetly.

"Now Rory love who said we didn't?" Finn grins.

I frown with confusion. "You did?"

"Of course we did. We had to show everyone here what the two of you were like in the beginning."

"Oh god, this should be interesting." I murmur.

"OK. So, Logan…" Finn lingers on.

I look over at Logan curiously as I watch him hand me a little box. "Here you go, Ace."

I frown. "Logan, I thought we were exchanging presents later? Yours is still upstairs."

"And that is fine but part of what Colin and Finn are doing centers around the present."

I give him a skeptical look as I open the box. It's a bracelet…a charm bracelet to be exact. "Wow! That's really pretty. Thank you. I love it." I give him a quick kiss.

"You're welcome."

"OK so every charm on her bracelet has some sort of significance in the Rory/Logan relationship. OK. First one is the Ace. So what does it mean in the world of Rory and Logan?"

"Oh, come on Finn. Make it harder. That's always been Logan's nickname for Rory." My mom complains.

"Yes but why did he give it to her, Lorelai?"

This of course stumps my mom so Doyle chooses to answer. "It's what kind of a reporter he thought she was."

"Very good, Doyle." Logan responds.

"So the next one is the umbrella. Anybody have any idea? Everyone on Logan's side with the exception of Josh is not allowed to answer. Actually that also includes you, Steph. You can't answer either."

It's pretty quiet. Nobody's guessing.

"Oh, come on." Finn coaxes. "Who wants to guess? Paris?"

"I don't need to guess, Finn." She states in her usual Paris tone. "I know what it represents. I lived with the girl the majority of the time we were at Yale. She has the picture smack dab in the middle of her collage. Have her mom or Lane guess."

"Ladies? Any ideas?"

"Lane?" My mom looks at her hopeful.

"Nada." Lane shakes her head clueless. "You?"

"Haven't a clue, Finn." My mom resigns.

"So Paris…why don't you tell everyone what it means?"

"It's what Rory clung to for dear life when she did that stupid Life and Death Brigade stunt."

I can see everyone who were members in the Life and Death Brigade throwing her vicious looks, including my soon to be husband.

"A couple things I'll clarify for you, Paris." I start. "One I had the umbrella in one hand and I held onto Logan's hand with the other. Two, it's really not wise to piss off the members of the Life and Death Brigade especially considering that at least 6 of them are in this room. All of them could do you bodily harm and I would be powerless to stop them. Not even Doyle would be able to save you." I inform her as I sip my champagne.

Paris quickly shuts her mouth and I smirk.

"So Paris…you really think that Rory's life was in immediate danger?" Colin asks as he folds his arms across his chest. I can tell he's getting a little ticked off at her and I don't blame him. "You think we forced her against her will?"

"I wouldn't be surprised."

"Paris do you want me to tell Doyle about the way you were acting with the strippers last week at my bachelorette party?"

"How was she acting?" Doyle's ears perk up.

"Want me to tell him Paris?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Rory." Paris claims.

"That's true; you probably don't since you were so drunk." I inform her. "He might want to hear this."

"How was she acting?" Doyle repeats.

"Go ahead and tell him." She tells me. "It's not like it's true. You have no proof."

All the girls that were at my bachelorette party start to laugh.

"Are you forgetting Paris that we were there too?" Lane reminds her.

"You're quite the dancer when you're wasted." Steph points out.

"It was actually pretty funny." Honor grins.

Paris keeps her mouth shut.

"Stop pissing off the Life and Death Brigade members or I'll show Doyle the tape of it."

"You have it on tape?" Paris and Doyle exclaim at the same time.

"I want to see it." Doyle responds.

"Yeah, we wanted documentation of it so my mom had her camera with her and it has a camcorder feature on it."

"I must admit Paris, you have gotten better since your days of belly dancing at the Payne Whitney Gym." Logan informs her and her face goes pure white.

"You've seen it?"

"He has." I confirm. "And unless you want everyone in this room to see it, you'll stop insulting the LDB members, got me?"

She nods.

"By the way, I wasn't forced against my will to do anything, OK? Granted it took some sweet talking on Logan's part but I did the jump to prove to everyone, including myself, that I could."

"'Sweet talking on Logan's part'?" Finn smirks. "He would never do that, would he?"

I grin at him. "No, never."

"Tell you what, Paris. Why don't we just watch Rory do her jump? Besides, I'm sure everyone would love to see their banter and watch her get sweet talked by Logan." Finn says as Colin starts to fiddle around with the laptop.

"Are you mocking me, Finn?" I ask.

"Never darling." He grins. "I know what Logan is capable of."

The next thing I know I see me sitting in the dark woods writing in my notebook and the tents are illuminated by the fire.

"Oh my god!" I exclaim. "You're serious? You actually taped the jump?" I smack Logan's arm. "Let me get this straight. You took away my damn camera and you, however, decided to tape the damn jump?"

"Ace…" He grabs my hand to stop me from smacking him again which is what I was getting ready to do.

"Whoa, whoa Rory." Colin quickly rushes to Logan's aid. "Actually, in all honesty, Logan himself wasn't even made aware that this tape existed. He had no prior knowledge we were taping this."

"I didn't know!" Logan promises.

I calm myself down then. I think all the stress is starting to get to me now.

"This was the rest of us who decided to do this, Rory." Steph pipes up and all eyes fall on her. "Now we knew that Logan would be keeping watch on you but we thought that we'd just see how well you handle the way we are."

I sigh. "Why don't you just roll the tape? I swear though if you guys taped anything while I was in my tent…"

"We're not perverts, Rory." Colin reminds me and I give him a knowing smile. "OK so maybe Finn used to be but we only taped out in the open, OK?"

"OK, I believe you." I nod. "Roll the tape." I turn my attention to the screen.

It picks up when I'm writing in the woods and Logan joins me to go over the rules. The music starts so I say just as I say it on the screen at the same time:

"That's pretty."

Logan looks over at me along with everyone else and he answers, "They're drunk."

"Well, it sounds pretty; I like it."

"I didn't say I didn't like it."

We time it perfectly and start to laugh and he leans over and kisses me.

"Well, what do you know? They remember their banter perfectly." Finn declares. "So as you watch now, it's the next day…"

It's daylight at the site now and I keep my eyes intently on the screen and see myself do a once over on the scaffolding and then Logan comes into the foreground.

"Hope you're thinking of superlatives." He says at the same time he does on the video.

"What are they going to do?" I recite.

"What do you think they're going to do?"

"They're not going to jump…"

"They're going to jump!" He answers in the same high tone he said it in the first time around.

"That's like 7 stories; they'll die."

"We're all going to die 1 day." Logan reminds me.

"But those 4 are today."

"6." He corrects me.

"I see 4." I reply.

"I'm heading up." He tells me.

"Of course you are." I sigh.

"And Finn was supposed to do it but few of us figured that he'd make it this far so there's an extra space."

"Hmm…" I respond then look at him like I did when I originally said it. "No!"

"And we're not going to die. No one in the Life and Death Brigade has ever died. Old ones have."

"I'm not going to jump!" I state vehemently.

"We're all set." Seth is on the screen now.

"This is Seth. He's the genius behind all this."

We manage to go through all the journalists who participated and what they did. I'm shocked that Logan is able to recite all of them.

"You're scared." Logan concludes out loud.

"Well, yeah!" I exclaim.

"And that stops the greats?"

I point to myself. "It's stopping this great!"

"Come on!" He whines. "You look like you need a little adventure."

"What does that mean?" I demand.

"You're just a little sheltered."

"Why? Because I haven't spent time in a Nazi prison, been stomped on by hooligans and beat up by Hell's Angels? And Plimpton got banged up pretty good, too." I remind him.

"It'll be fun; it'll be a thrill. Something stupid, something bad for you. Just something different. Isn't this the point of being young? It's your choice, Ace. People can live a 100 years without living for a minute, climb up here with me, it's one less minute you haven't lived."

I think for a moment then say, "Let's go."

"Let's go."

"I'm not a fan of ladders."

"They scare the crap out of me too."

We climb the scaffolding and I glance down and say, "High…we are very high."

"I've been higher."

"I meant distance from the ground."

"That too."

Seth appears on the screen again.

"Why do they look so worried?"

"We're low on champagne. You can back out, you know. No one's forcing you."

"I know." I look directly at Paris when I recite that line.

Colin starts to recite Latin.

Logan glances over at me when he asks, "You trust me?"

"You jump, I jump Jack."

We have the rest of the LDB recite In Omnia Paratus.

"I really should have made sure that those potatoes were OK."

Then everyone watches as I jump with my umbrella in my right hand and clutching Logan's hand with my left. We all, of course land safely and there's cheering.

"You did good, Ace." Logan grins at me.

"Once in a lifetime experience."

"Only if you want it to be."

I had everyone, amazingly even Paris, applauding after witnessing it.

Colin shuts the video off. "So tell me…did you trust him at that point?"

"Umm…" I think long and hard about this. "Let's just say I trusted him enough to know he wasn't going to push me over the edge."

"Rory…" Logan starts to say.

"Logan, we still didn't know each other all that well. It was a risk and I'm glad I took it but to say I trusted you 100% at that point would be a lie."

"And now?"

"And now I do."

I turn my attention to Paris then. "So Paris…did seeing that video change your mind, perhaps?" I ask.

"OK, maybe." She admits. "I've only got one question."

"Which is what?" Logan asks.

"How the hell did you remember everything you said that day?"

"Well it was just a memorable day." I explain. "It was the day that Logan taught me how to be a risk taker."

"Well, actually the next trip will be more memorable." Logan promises.

"Shut up." I groan.

"What?"

"We're not going to go into the trip we're taking the week after the honeymoon because you 6 know where we're going and I don't and yet it's my money that is paying for the trip." I growl.

My mom's frowning. "Wait…what? You're joining the Life and Death Brigade?"

"No not the active chapter; that's for the Yale students." I clarify to her. "It's more or less as an honorary member since I'm a legacy on the Gilmore side." I tell her.

"How are you a legacy?" Mom asks.

"Well, grandpa was a member but the more surprising fact was so was Trix."

"Who the hell is Trix?" Luke asks my mom.

Her mouth drops open at what I've just told her. "Are you serious? The original Lorelai Gilmore was a member?"

"You mean there was a Lorelai Gilmore before you?"

My mom frowns. "Yeah, my grandma of course. I'm pretty sure you knew that. Wow, that woman was full of surprises."

"Yeah, the trip got taken out of her money."

"So are you sure you want to do this?" Mom looks totally serious right now.

"I'm sure. Besides, like I said before I kind of have to."

"Why do you kind of have to do?"

"Look, Mom, it is mainly because I want to but I need to do this out of obligation."

"Obligation to whom?"

"To grandpa…and Trix…and to my husband." I explain.

"Rory, we've went over this numerous times." Logan sighs. "You're only supposed to be doing this because you want to not because you feel obligated to."

"I know dear but to say that you played absolutely no part in the decision process would be a lie. OK, Finn, we're moving on because if we don't we'll be here all night."

"OK, darling. So Rory's third charm is a coffee mug."

"Rory loves her coffee." Lane muses.

"Loves it?" Luke laughs. "She more than loves it. Rory's been drinking coffee since she was 15 years old. The only person who loves coffee more than Rory is her mother."

I sigh and glance over at mom. "Mom, the time has come to tell Luke the truth."

"The truth about what?" He frowns.

"Are you sure he can handle that?"

"Handle what?" He demands.

"Tell him, mom."

"OK, Luke what I'm about to tell you is not meant to hurt you."

"Good God what?"

"Rory's actually been drinking coffee since she was 12 years old. She's only been drinking it at the diner since was 15."

"Are you serious?" He gasps while everyone else laughs.

"Come on, Luke." Lane chuckles. "That can't come as a shock to you with as long as you've known Rory."

"We're so sorry you had to find out this way." My mom pats his arm.

"Oh shut up."

Logan and I laugh.

"Now number 4 of her charms is a laptop. This, of course, could have different meanings to everyone…" Finn explains.

"Her work on the paper." Doyle concludes.

"Being extremely studious." My dad answers.

"And Logan's reasons for adding it were…" Finn drifts off.

"Oh, it's more for Christopher's reason than Doyle's. Rory has always been studious but she is in a whole other realm if she misses any classes whether it's a full class term…or just 6 weeks."

I see Logan smirking and Colin and Finn snickering and then it dawns on me why. I scowl. "Oh God. The skit. What the hell is it with you 3 and that damn skit?"

"I've got another confession for you, darling." Finn grins at me.

"I'm afraid to even ask."

Colin hits play again and the tape cues up right outside the lecture hall where Professor Bell taught his class. I see Colin, Finn and Logan all congregating in front of the door.

My mouth nearly hits the floor. "You taped it?"

"We taped it." Colin confirms.

"How? You three were in the front of the room."

"Actually both Seth and Robert were in that class. Robert taped us and Seth taped you."

"Steph, have you seen this tape?" I ask.

She quickly shakes her head then smiles, "No but now I can't wait to see if it's exactly like you said it was."

I can't believe they taped it. No, I take that back. I can. I sigh. "So roll it."

Colin presses play and you can hear students around them and see them bustling in and out of classrooms.

I sit ever quiet with my arms folded across my chest and listen to them talk about just how they plan on pulling this off. I then hear Seth say.

"You do realize that Rory's going to kill you for this Logan, right?"

I smirk at the TV. For about the next 12 hours after that skit happened I did want to kill him.

"No she won't." He quickly responds. "She may hate me for awhile but years from now she won't even remember that we did this."

"Wrong." I tell the screen. "OK, you know what? Pause it for a moment."

Colin complies and I just stare at all 3 of them and smirk. "You know it really shouldn't surprise me that you guys taped this but I have a better idea. Why don't you three just get up and just reenact it for everyone?"

All 3 of them look at me curiously.

"Well, come on guys. This was so memorable for you three. Your memory can't be all that bad that you forgot what you did for the skit. I'll make it interesting if you can get the whole thing done from memory. I'll give you a minute to reconvene on just how you did it but you literally only have a minute."

They're still staring at me. It's getting comical.

"Umm…seriously why are you looking at me like that? Come on, we just reenacted that LDB thing not even 10 minutes ago. Time's a wasting. You've got 60 seconds to jog your memories about this starting…now."

They all huddle together and talk quietly.

"Ten seconds left, guys." I give them their warning and they head out into the hallway.

Everyone glances over at me. "They're just trying to make this believable. You need to imagine this as a classroom and my professor is in front giving a lecture."

Colin busts in just like he did the first time. "Excuse me. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

I tell everybody as if I'm the professor. "Colin then gets reminded he's interrupting class."

"I know. I'm sorry. I just…" Colin runs up to me. "Rory, you can't just walk out like that. Not after everything we've been through. You just left. I was still in bed. I mean what is that all about?"

Stephanie is dying laughing.

"Steph, you need to remember to breathe." I remind her.

"I am, I am." She tells me in between giggles.

Everyone else is starting to laugh too and I smile.

"Colin gets told he needs to wait til later for this conversation."

"I can't do this later. Rory, I love you. I love you, dammit! How many times do I have to tell you? God, just talk to me."

"Colin then gets told that he needs to get out of the classroom but before he can, here comes Logan." I predict as Logan comes rushing in.

"Colin! What are you doing, man?"

Colin yells at him. "Get the hell out of here!"

"She's with me now. I told you that. Let it go."

"I will not let it go."

"She doesn't love you. Rory, tell him you don't love him."

I think it's now time for a rewrite. "I don't love you, Colin."

Colin's looking shocked at my answer. "Wait, what? That's not how this went."

I smile. "I know." I nod. "But it's how it should have went and if I had remembered what Logan's attitude was towards playing jokes, I would have answered that way. But we can finish this. Continue please…"

"Everything was fine until you came along!"

"Oh, don't blame me because you couldn't keep her."

"I swear to God I'm gonna kill you!"

"Oh, I'd love to see you try."

Colin lunges at Logan and they start to fight. Everyone's cracking up and I start to laugh too. "The professor threatens to call security but before it even gets that far, Finn marches in wearing an old policemen's uniform. You'll have to imagine he just blew his whistle."

Finn comes in and grabs each of them by the back of their suit jackets. "Alright. That's enough. Break it up you two. Rory Gilmore, you should be ashamed of yourself, toying with these boys like this. They used to have pride! They used to have dignity! They used to have balls!" He's carrying Colin and Logan out when he stops and looks back at me, "Dammit Gilmore give them back their balls!"

They all leave and we applaud, this time including me. When they come back in, they see me smiling and laughing.

"You guys it's a miracle!" Logan declares. "It only took 3 years but we FINALLY got Rory to laugh at it."

"Yeah, yeah. You got me to laugh about it now." I smile. "Not bad considering I decided to throw you guys off the track a little."

"Would you have really answered that way if you knew we were going to do that?" Colin asks.

"I don't know." I shrug. "Probably. Maybe. Hard to tell now. OK go ahead and show the way it originally happened."

Colin rolls the tape. We watch what happened back then and I smile at the memory. It is time to move pass this though.

"It is nice to see you laugh about the skit now, Gilmore." Colin tells me.

"I bet it is. How's your girlfriend doing over there? Is she still breathing?"

"I don't know. Steph, you doing OK?"

"Fine. I'm fine." She answers but is still giggling.

"So what do we get for doing that skit live?" Logan asks.

"You?" I laugh. "Nothing. You're marrying me. That's yours. Finn and Colin, I'll get back to you tomorrow on that."

"Hey, that's not fair!" Logan whines.

"Fine, I'll think of something, OK?" I groan.

"OK so the next one is a purse. Want to explain that one, Logan?" Finn asks.

"It was just before Rory turned 21 that I bought her 1st Birkin bag."

"It's sad when grandma knows more about the purse than I do." I tell all of them and everyone laughs.

"I had to have Honor teach her how to use it." Logan adds and they all laugh again.

"Number 6 is the rocket. Want to take a guess anybody?"

"Oh my God, that rocket." My mom exclaims. "OK so Rory comes home the day Logan left for London and we spent the day trying to figure out why the hell he gave it to her."

"You told me you knew." Logan frowns.

"Oh, she did." My mom adds. "At 2 o'clock in the morning she barges into my room and tells me she finally figured out what it meant."

"I called you right after that." I tell him.

"I can't believe it took you that long."

"Well, forgive me Logan but my first thought didn't drift to the Twilight Zone episode."

"By the way we have more video now. Rory was actually aware that this video was taken. She talks to the camera however this is going to be the first time Logan has seen it. He didn't even know this tape existed." Colin informs all of us.

I'm curious what we're going to watch. It looks like it was when I was setting up for Logan's goodbye party. I remember this. The guys were keeping Logan occupied while I decorated. Steph and I kept decorating while the camera was rolling.

"So how many people are coming?" Steph asks me on camera.

"I lost count after 40. It should be a really good turnout for him."

"It's really sweet that you're doing this for Logan, Rory."

"Well, it's the least I can do for him." I tell her. "I only wish I could do more."

"You could, you know."

"Could what?"

"Do more."

"Like what?"

"Have you asked him to stay?"

"No."

"Why not? You know he would if you asked him to."

"Oh, I know he would."

"So ask him."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because his dad told me that he'd make our life a living hell if I even tried to get him to stay." I confess and Logan's expression becomes thunderous. Honor's looking pretty appalled herself.

"He did what?" He shouts. "Why didn't you ever tell me that?"

"What would it have changed?" I ask him. "Not a damn thing." I glance between him and Honor and smirk at the fact that they're wearing the same expression. It's a cross between sadness and irate.

"Oh yeah. You two are definitely related. You have the same looks." I inform them. "Logan, it doesn't matter now. It's in the past and by this time tomorrow we'll be husband and wife, OK?"

"I just really wish you would have said something." He answers quietly.

"You know what? I probably should have. Just finish watching this. You'll get to hear the rest of the conversation Steph and I had."

"Mitchum told you that?" Steph says on the tape.

I nod on screen.

"When?"

"This afternoon. I rode down in the elevator with him. I was on my way to my Friday night dinner at my grandparents' house."

"Are you going to tell him what his dad said to you?"

"Nope."

"Why not?"

"Because he has enough to worry about. Besides Steph, we've already talked about everything. We're not splitting up. Granted the distance is not going to be easy. The distance just may kill me but we will be OK." I take a seat on our bed in the video and sigh. "Trust me, if I was more of the gambling type, I'd risk it but I'm not. It's just…it's going to take a hell of a lot of strength to tell him to go when he asks me to tell him to stay and he will ask me to tell him to stay."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Trust me, I know Logan."

"I bet you do." Steph smirks on screen.

"Stephanie!" I exclaim on screen.

"Yeah Stephanie!" I laugh and she starts to giggle.

"Only you would take what I said and cast it under sexual undertones." I say on screen.

"Now you know that's not true. If Finn was here, he would have too."

"That's true, yeah. While I know that side of him very well too, that's not what I mean. We're pretty in sync with each other. I know he doesn't want to leave."

"That's great that you're that close." Steph hesitates. "Do you think you'll ever get married?"

"Maybe…" I answer on the video. "I'd like to think we would but I'd never bring that up to him right now. That would just freak him out." I look up on screen at the video camera. "Oh, that's right. We're taping this. I guess I should tell him a message. I wonder when Colin and Finn will let him see the tape. OK." I look directly at the video camera. "Hi honey. Well, we're almost done setting up for the party for tonight. I can't wait for you to see my outfit. Very British, Very Marianne Faithfull. You'll love it. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you how much I'm going to miss you and I love you so much. We'll make it through this, Logan. You'll be back here with me before you know it. Listen, I know you're now hearing probably for the first time what I just said about your dad." I sigh on screen. "If I was stronger I would fight him on this but you and I both know who would win and you know it would not be me." I watch myself on screen as I'm on the verge of breaking down, "OK so I'm going to end the video now before I start crying because that's the last thing you need to see. Anyway, I love you so much and I'll miss you more than you'll ever know." I blow the camera a kiss and wave. "Bye sweetie."

I was actually tearing up just watching it again. Colin hits stop and then gives me a rueful smile. "So how long did you cry after you stopped the video?"

I quickly shake my head. "Not nearly as long as I did when he actually left. I pretty much spent the whole morning he left bawling and I told myself I was never going to tell him that." I wipe away my tears then glance at my soon to be husband and he's grinning at me.

"What?" I ask.

He kisses me sweetly. "Thank you, Ace. I loved that video but there's something you got seriously wrong."

"What's that?"

"You're one of the strongest people I know. Don't ever doubt that, OK?"

I nod.

"Now the 7th charm is a champagne flute which should be pretty obvious." Logan tells everyone. "And the last 3 charms are our 1st initials and if Rory will open the charm in the middle…"

I do as he requests and see our engagement picture on one side but nothing on the other.

"Why isn't there…"

"It'll be for our wedding picture." He explains.

"Oh." I give him a kiss. "Thank you. I love it."

"And for the last part of the evening…" Colin announces, "is a montage of pictures of Logan and Rory throughout the years. Now what you both should know is that everyone in this room donated at least 1 picture. By the way Logan we raided your pictures before you moved to Palo Alto."

"You did?"

"You've gotten all of them back we promise." Finn adds as Colin cues up the slideshow. A shot of me dressed in the dress I wore for the LDB stunt flashes up on the screen. Then a shot of Logan in the tux he wore that day flashes up too. A picture expands in the middle with us standing at the edge of the scaffolding glancing at each other when the title comes up: Rory and Logan: A Tribute.

"That title kind of makes it sound like we're dead you guys." I inform them.

"Way to think on the positive side, Gilmore." Colin rolls his eyes.

Just my name comes up then with a picture of me smiling as I sit at our breakfast bar in our condo in San Francisco and I'm typing on my laptop. The title fans out and there's a collage of pictures of me throughout the years including one of me and Lane when we were kids. There's also a lot of embarrassing pictures of me as a kid.

"Thanks a lot Mom." I groan to her.

"Oh, come on Ror. It's all in good fun." She winks at me.

Then the screen changes to a shot of Logan as he sits out on our rooftop deck at the condo. He's dressed very laid back and he has his sunglasses on with a huge grin on his face. His name then flashes on screen then disappears. There's a lot of pictures I've seen but there's quite a few that I haven't.

"What the hell did you do, Honor?" Logan demands. "Did you go through my baby book?"

Honor laughs. "Yeah, pretty much."

The montage of our pictures together comes up with the title page and it has one of our engagement pictures on it. We're sitting in one of the parks that was close to the studio. I'm wearing a black, sleeveless tiered dress I got at Macy's and I have my hair curled. Logan's wearing a black suit with hunter green tie. We both have huge grins on our faces. There's a few pictures of us at the LDB event. The next one that comes up is at the Yale Alumni party that my grandparents threw.

"Who took that one?" I ask him as I stare it. It was just us on the patio.

"Your grandpa did." Logan tells me.

The next one is of us dancing at my grandparents' vow renewal.

"Wait! That's at the vow renewal. Who took that? Mom?" I look over at her and she's shaking her head.

"Nope, not me hun. At the vow renewal, Logan was just the strange blonde guy I found you making out with in the dressing room."

Everyone laughs. "Then who did?" I ask her.

Mom shrugs. "My guess is your grandma saw you two dancing and sent the photographer over."

The next one that comes up is actually one of us in the Yale newsroom. I remember that day. It was the day before Finn's Tarantino party and I was sitting at my desk typing my article and Logan was sitting on my desk next to me.

"Paris? Doyle?" I offer.

"That's my picture." Doyle tells me. "I have pictures of everyone on staff when they were on the paper."

The next one was actually Finn's Tarantino party where I was dressed GoGo from Kill Bill and Logan went as Butch from Pulp Fiction.

"Hey, she was my date to that party." Robert voices.

"Who the hell cares Robert?" Logan snaps as I grin. "As of tomorrow, she's my wife."

"Ahh…look at Logan." I tease. "Still getting jealous after all these years."

"I was never jealous." Logan argues.

"As you shouldn't be." I remind him. "Especially considering you had your own date to that party."

"Robert?" The look on my mom's face is one of confusion. "Wait, you mean he was real?"

My eyes grow wide and everyone starts to quietly laugh. "Oh My God! You thought I made him up, didn't you? Of course he's real Mother! He's real, the party was real. The only thing that I made up was his last name because I didn't know it at the time."

"Well, I didn't think you would but…"

"But you thought that my seeing Logan with that girl was enough to cause me to fabricate a guy? Come on, Mom. You know me better than that." I remind her.

"That was amusing seeing your reaction to the whole thing Logan." Robert smirks and Logan scowls.

"Oh shut up, Robert."

"You should be nice to me, Huntz considering I'm the one who took that picture."

Logan looks surprised by that.

"Everybody at the party could see how you felt about Rory and I saw it as an opportunity to let her use me to make you jealous."

"You let me use you?" I laugh.

"I had no doubt as to the reason why she agreed to go to the party with me."

Before we can go any further into the conversation I see a new picture come up. It's us after Logan's graduation ceremony. We have our heads together with big smiles on our faces.

"That's at Yale but I don't remember that picture being taken." I glance over at Honor. "Did you take that?"

"I didn't take it but I gave it to Finn and Colin to put in for the pictures."

"Well who took it?" Logan asks.

Honor flashes a small smile. "Mom did."

Honestly, my mind has just went blank…

* * *

**Wasn't that a nice note to end the chapter on? LOL. Anyway, as for what that last picture looks like, look at my avatar at the top of the page. Anyway, please please review. I got five on the last chapter and I'd love to have more. It will put me in great mood when I'm on the phone tomorrow at my job. I will get chapter 20 out probably in the middle of the week. Next chapter will be Logan's POV and it's finishing up the rehearsal dinner and his night before the wedding. It's actually kind of a short one compared to these recently. Should still be good though :D**


	21. Logan's Poker Night

**OK so I decided to release this early for you all. This is just more or less a filler chapter before the wedding. Very short compared to the chapters recently. I will release the Wedding Chapter on Wednesday. Thank you for all the reviews. I really do appreciate them. Now in this chapter I may have put that there are 6 engagement pictures and in a previous chapter I put 3 or 4 pictures. It was supposed to be 6 pictures. Anyway, keep reviewing and the chapter will be released on Wednesday for sure. **

Wow! This night is just full of surprises. Between all of these secret videotapes, Rory's heartfelt goodbye when I was leaving for London, and now finding out that my mom has a picture of us? I'm trying to wrap my brain around this. It's so unlike her. She and my grandpa have horrendously disliked Rory for no good reason since the moment they met her.

"Mom did?" I gaze at my sister skeptically. "Are you sure you haven't had a lot to drink tonight, Honor?"

"I'll let that slide Logan since you're getting married tomorrow. Of course it was her who took it. It was either her or dad but given what Rory said on the videotape I'm leaning more towards mom."

Unbelievable. Even after being in my family for 25 years there are still things I don't think I'll ever understand. There are more pictures that are coming up. There are a bunch of them from my graduation, a couple from the party at the pub after our grand theft boating incident. I see Rory's face turn melancholy but she doesn't say anything. I know she's thinking of when she and her mom weren't talking. She had a really hard time with that. The pictures come up from my farewell party right before I went to London. My face turns melancholy then. I never told anybody this but when I left that morning as soon as the elevator door closed, I started to cry too. I broke down too. It was a pretty horrible flight.

The pictures from our Christmas trip to London as the next ones that come up. Rory spent two weeks with me there. It was a great trip though mainly because we knew I was moving back to the US. There are pictures from my trip to Stars Hollow the first time and one of them is with us and Lorelai. It's a really great picture considering I'm pretty sure that all of our smiles are genuine. More graduation pictures but this time it's Rory's. We took a family picture that day with me, her, her parents, and her grandparents and that huge rock I got her. The next bunch are from our trip to New York and Palo Alto. Colin, Steph, and Finn are in several of those. Now it's moving day pictures, both our first house and then the condo we moved into 6 weeks ago. Lorelai, Luke, Colin, Finn, and Steph assisted with both moves. We owe them a huge deal of gratitude. Lastly are our six engagement pictures.

I peer over at Rory who is glancing back at me with a huge grin on her face. As the montage ends, everyone applauds at a job well done by Finn and Colin.

"OK." Rory stands up and addresses everyone. "Wow! On behalf of myself and Logan, we would like to thank all of you for being a part of our wedding. Thank you also to everyone that helped with our moves. It will be the last time we move for quite awhile, I promise."

Everyone quietly laughs.

"Also a special thanks to Colin and Finn for that…very amazing retrospective of us. It's been nice to go back and look at the videos and the pictures, so thank you. And last but not least, another very special thank you to my mom who helped between the moves and with the wedding planning keep me sane in times when Logan, try as he might, could not. Logan…" She gazes down at me. "Anything to add?"

Not really. I mean she pretty well summed it up with her speech but I stand up anyway as she sits down. "Well, I think Rory about covered it all but I just want to reiterate how much we appreciate all of the help you guys have given us. We really are lucky to have you as friends and family and we love you all. Thank you again." I sit back down and thread my fingers with Rory's.

"Well, that's it." Finn tells everyone. "We'll see you all tomorrow when we watch our favorite couple exchange their vows. Goodnight."

Rory and I get up from the table with our hands still interlaced together. We head to the elevator and ride up to the penthouse where our suites are.

"So Ace…did you have a good time tonight?" I turn to face her as soon as the doors closed.

I see her grin and nod. "I had a great time. You?"

"Yeah, me too. A few surprises of course but none of them bad."

"Yeah I know."

"What do you think was the biggest surprise of all?" I ask her.

"Honestly? Hearing that your mom took that picture of us together at your graduation."

"Yeah, that threw me for a loop too. I had no idea that picture even existed."

The elevators doors open and we step out and head to her bridal suite.

"Wait here." She tells me. "I'll go get your present." She unlocks the door and returns a moment later and hands me a small present. I reach inside my inner suit jacket pocket and hand her the actual present I got her. We open them at the same time and I hear her gasp. I bought her a Tiffany Diamonds by the Yard diamond necklace. There's 15 round diamonds along the platinum chain.

"Logan, that's so gorgeous. Thank you." She gives me a quick kiss.

"You're welcome." I grin at her as I finish opening my present. I open the box and find a black alligator strap chronograph watch.

"Wow! That's nice. Thank you Ace." I lean down and kiss her. She tries to pull away but I don't let her.

"Logan…" She mumbles.

"Hmmm…" I start to trail kisses down her neck. "Do you have any idea how badly I want to make love to you right now?"

"I know." She whispers. "But you know we can't." She reminds me and I groan in dissatisfaction. "Oh come on, Logan." She coaxes as her arms get wrapped around my neck. "Think about it. By this time tomorrow we'll be married."

I grin. "I know. I'm so happy."

"Me too." We kiss again. "You better get going." She tells me.

"Yeah, I better go." I give her a long kiss then. "Goodnight, Ace. I love you."

"I love you too, Logan. Goodnight."

I turn and head down the hallway to my suite and find Colin, Finn, Seth, and Robert already drinking about ready to start a poker game.

"Are you going to play Logan?" Colin asks me as he shuffles the cards.

"Yeah sure." I say as I take a seat in between Finn and Seth. "What a night. It was quite a party."

"Thank you, thank you." Finn gets up and does a little bow.

"You would take all the credit for it, wouldn't you Finn?" Colin groans.

"Jealous?" Finn smirks.

"Hardly." Colin scoffs then proceeds to deal the cards. "So what did you get from Rory?"

"A watch." I gather my cards and sift through them. "A pretty cool watch actually."

"Excellent mate. So did she like the necklace?"

"Yeah, I think so." I tell them.

We play a couple games which I lose both but luckily it's not a lot of money; well by my standards it's not.

"Aren't you guys supposed to be letting me win considering that I'm getting married and how I paid for the wedding not to mention your guys' week long trip to Vegas while I'm on my honeymoon?"

"I will give you our trip to Vegas, Huntz but correct me if I'm wrong here isn't it your future wife's money that paid for the wedding?" Robert smirks.

"No." I argue.

"Uh, yeah." Colin chimes in. "I think the only things that you have paid for were our trip and Rory's gifts. Everything else over the next two weeks was paid for by Rory."

"Excuse me…" I glare. "That is not the case and you all know it. We split the rehearsal dinner and I also paid for the honeymoon too. Quite frankly the wedding was paid for by Richard and Emily as they allotted her an amount they wanted her to spend on it. As for the rest of the trip, it was her great-grandma who gave her the guidelines on how to spend it."

"Ahh…" Seth nods. "That's right. Rory's great-grandma. My grandpa told me she was something else."

"From what Rory has told me which wasn't much but what she knew of her, she was something else." Which is true. She told me all about how her great-grandma couldn't stand Emily or the fact that she had married one of her cousins. I know that freaked Rory out the most.

"How is she doing with this whole LDB initiation?" Colin asks as we place bets.

"You saw her. As long as you don't bring it up or tease her about it, she's fine. You start to tease her about it, she starts plotting. You know that, Colin. Think about our trip to New York and Palo Alto."

Colin smirks. "That's right. She honestly shouldn't worry that much."

"I know that and you know that Colin but when it comes to Rory, it's in one ear and out the other."

"Do you think she's ready for this?" Seth asks honestly and I frown.

"Are you talking physically or mentally?"

"Both."

"Yeah, I think she's more than ready on both fronts. She's been at the gym at my work I'd say a good 2 or 3 times a week."

"Really?" Finn looks amazed.

"Yeah. I actually caught her once on the treadmill and there was another time she was lifting weights." I did a double take when I witnessed it. I thought surely I was dreaming.

All the guys start laughing.

"What? It's true."

"Forgive us, mate but Rory hates exercising and you expect us to believe that she's been lifting weights?" Finn says in between chuckles.

"She has." I insist as I take a drink of my scotch. "Think about it. You two helped us move into the condo."

"Yeah so?" Colin asks.

"Well think about how it differed from when we moved into the house. Do you remember her carrying a lot of heavy stuff when we moved into the house?"

"No." They answer in unison.

"And how about when we moved into the condo?"

Finn and Colin get quiet then.

"Yeah, she did. She started to work out in anticipation of our condo move. The added benefit of course is that it will come in handy for the initiation. Don't worry; she's ready." I confirm.

We play 3 more games and I am able to win 2 of them before I decide it's time for me to head to bed. The rest of the guys are still playing and I have no idea whether or not they will even go to bed. It's not uncommon for us to play the whole night through.

I wake up at 10 o'clock and stretch. I grin. This is going to be a great day, I vow to myself. I'm going to make sure of it. I hear talking outside my bedroom and I know the guys are still playing poker. I reach over on my nightstand and grab my BlackBerry. It's time to text my beautiful bride.

_Good Morning Ace_

A moment later I get a response

_Good Morning Logan. Sleep OK?_

_Slept fine_, I text her, _u?_

_Great_

_Ready 2 b Mrs. Huntzberger?_

_Was ready 5 months ago_

I'm grinning from ear to ear now.

"Ahh…Logan looks as giddy as a schoolgirl." Finn drolls as he sticks his head in the bedroom. "He must be talking to reporter girl."

"I'm texting her yes." I clarify as I get a new message from her.

_Need 2 go. C u soon. Luv u_

_Luv u 2. _I have never in my life been this content with the way my life is going. My job is going amazing, we have settled in well to the new condo in San Francisco, and Rory…well, there are no words to describe Rory. She's just incredible. Between the move, planning the wedding, and preparing to take on the task of editor in chief of the online magazine, I'm surprised that she hasn't collapsed from exhaustion. The time hasn't come yet apparently but somehow I think it will be soon.

I had thought that it would take Rory a long time to adjust to the California way of living but she seemed to adapt to it fairly easily. Granted she was homesick for about the first 10 days or so and was calling her mom like every 3 hours but that soon dissipated.

We have the immediate future planned out. Rory will start the editor job in January. She will actually be able to interview and hire who she wants for her staff. Scott and I decided how many people we would need for the start the online magazine We figured there would be about 15 people to start with and the possibility to go up to 25.

As for the subject of kids, we covered that too but I think we'll hold off on that for a couple years. That way we can enjoy our newlywed life. Don't get me wrong, though. I can't wait until we do. To have a little girl with my blonde hair and Rory's blue eyes or a little boy with Rory's auburn locks and my brown eyes will be pure heaven.

"Logan!" Colin bangs on my bedroom door then comes in. "Hey! You need to get going! We have to be at the church at noon for pictures."

"OK." I nod then glance over at my clock and do a double take. God, it's almost 11. Colin's right. I need to get going. I dash into the bathroom and take a quick shower. I step out 15 minutes later after shaving and drying my hair. I come out of the bedroom after putting on my Ralph Lauren tux and hunter green cummerbund. I see all of the guys there in their wedding attire and Honor is among with them wearing her plum bridesmaid dress.

"Well, he emerges." Finn comments.

"Here I am." I state as I'm trying to tie my bowtie. I gaze at Honor curiously. "Honor, what are you doing in here? Shouldn't you be with the bridesmaids?"

"I was but I wanted to check and see how you were doing." She pushes my hands away and ties my bowtie for me.

"I'm doing great." I tell her honestly. "You look beautiful by the way."

She smiles. "Thank you. I love this dress. Rory has excellent taste when it comes to bridesmaids dresses."

"Speaking of, how does my bride look?" I ask curiously. It doesn't matter what she says though. I know Rory will look gorgeous. Rory always looks gorgeous.

"Amazing." Honor beams. "She looks absolutely amazing."

I grin. I can't wait to see her. I head into my bedroom to grab my wallet and also the watch that Rory got me. Honor follows me in and shuts the door behind her.

I frown at the gesture. "What are you doing?"

"Umm…" She's hesitating. This can't be good. "Are you going to say anything to them about what you found out?"

I sigh. I was actually wrestling with that last night. "I don't know, Honor. I want to keep this day peaceful. If I say anything to them it's going to be after the dinner. Not that it really matters anyway."

Honor scowls. "Why do you say that?"

"Because we've got the biggest hypocrites for parents, Honor. Now that they know that she's an heiress, they'll be sweet as pie to her. I don't know. I'm going to do some more contemplating here before I do anything." I tell her as we head back into the living room.

Fifteen minutes later, we pull up to Saint Paul's Chapel and file out of the limo one by one. The outside has tons of flowers and decorations and a marquee declaring that it's the Gilmore-Huntzberger wedding. I'm in the sanctuary of the church, discussing with Colin and Finn which one of them I think is going to get married next when the doors fly open and there she is…my angel. She looks as gorgeous as I thought she would. In a word…she's breathtaking.

* * *

**I know; it's pretty short. The next chapter is the wedding. In case you can't guess my favorite jewelry store is Tiffany's(and I'm nowhere near one). I use it a lot though for my Gossip Girl story that I'm writing. Oh! And as for the Rory working out in the gym, when I had originally planned this story out, there was going to be a chapter(or part of a chapter) that actually had her working out but I couldn't fit it in. In next few chapters there will be little hints about where they're going for the LDB event. If anyone wants to know, I'll tell you, just let me know in a review. I promise next chapter will be out on Wednesday. Reviews please! I love them!**


	22. The Wedding

**It's here; time for the wedding chapter. Yeah it was a long 20 chapters to get here. Hopefully you all like it. I have the next three days off so the honeymoon chapters will start to come out. The story may take a little serious vibe for awhile. I really hope you still like it though. I'm really still loving writing it. It makes me happy to know that all of you are really liking it too. Keep reviewing. Nothing makes me happier than reading them. Anyway, onto the chapter!**

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I wake up to loud, annoying constant pounding on the door. I had bolted it shut last night after Logan had left. I glance over at the clock and see it's only 8. I grudgingly get out of bed and drag myself to the door. I look in the peephole and standing there is my annoying mother.

"What?" I grumble as soon as I swing the door open.

"Time to wake up, kid."

"I had a wakeup call set; it was for an hour from now!" I snap as I storm back into the bedroom.

"Hey, your grandma is like 5 minutes behind me. If I wouldn't have woken you up, she would have." She informs me as she comes in and closes the door. "Why don't you go take a shower?"

I shrug. "Fine." I head into the bathroom and lock the door. A shower actually sounds really good right now. I need to wake up.

Twenty minutes later, I emerge wearing the bathrobe they provide and my hair is still damp. I come out of the bedroom and see not only my mom but both of my grandmas and Gigi.

"Well, there she is." My mom's mom exclaims.

"Here I am." I state as I sit on the couch and cross one leg over the other.

"Hi Rory." Gigi comes over and plops down next to me.

"Hi Gigi." I smile at her. "Did you sleep good?"

"Yeah. We have a big huge bed and it's really comfy."

"That's great. My bed was really comfy too." I glance over at my mom. "Mom, did you order breakfast?"

"Yes, it should be here shortly."

"Be really careful what you eat right now, Rory." My grandma reminds me. "You don't want to eat too much so that you won't be able to get into your dress."

I mentally roll my eyes. Leave it to my grandma to put a damper on things. "Yes, grandma I know."

"Leave her alone, mom." My mom sighs. "Rory will fit into her dress regardless of how much she eats."

The food arrives 10 minutes later and we all gather around the small dining room table. We quietly eat and chat, amazingly Gigi even is. It's shocking how calm she's being. My guess is that Francine had a talk with her earlier this morning.

At nine-thirty, the rest of my bridal party starts to filter in. Paris is in diva mode. If someone walked in who didn't know any of us, they would swear that Paris was the one acting like a bridezilla.

While I watch Gigi get her hair curled, I hear my phone beep. I rush over to my nightstand and grab my BlackBerry. It's not surprising that it's a message from Logan.

_Good Morning Ace_

I smile as I sit down on the bed Indian style and text him back.

_Good Morning Logan. Sleep OK?_

He texts me back a moment later. _Slept fine. U?_

_Great_

_Ready 2 be Mrs. Huntzberger?_

I start to beam at his text message and I give him an honest answer.

_Was ready 5 months ago_

"Rory!" My mom calls from the living room. "Get moving. I'm done curling Gigi's hair. We need to do your hair and makeup now."

_Need 2 go. C U soon. Luv U_ I quickly text.

_Luv u 2_

I head back into the living room with a huge grin on my face. All of my bridesmaids glance at me curiously as I come in. "What?" I demand.

"You're looking extra happy." Paris notes to everyone.

"It's my wedding day, Paris." I remind her. "Of course I'm going to be extra happy."

"No, this is something else." Lane responds.

"I've seen this look." Paris confirms. "That is her harlequin romance face. She's been talking to Logan."

"God, you two really are in love, aren't you?" Lane concludes with a smile.

"That we are." I nod as I sit down at the breakfast bar so my mom can curl my hair. Yes, it probably would have been easier to get a hairdresser and make-up artist like my grandma did for her vow renewal but my mom offered and I trust her more than I do anyone else. Well, except my future husband.

"Have you been talking to Logan, Rory because you know that's bad luck." My mom's mom chimes in.

"No it's bad luck if I see him." I correct her. "I've only been texting him." I inform all of them. "I haven't even heard his voice today."

It takes 45 minutes to curl my hair and do my makeup. My mom does an excellent job on each. My stomach starts to flutter now. It's not because I'm nervous; it's because I'm happy. I hop off of the barstool to get changed into my dress. It's the most gorgeous wedding dress I've ever seen.

I go to the bathroom then return to the bedroom to put my dress on. My mom comes in a moment later to help tie the corset top.

"So how are you doing, hun?"

"Good." I wince at how tight she is trying it. "Just make sure I can breathe here, OK?"

"Hey Rory?" Honor calls from the living room.

"Yeah?" I call back as my mom finishes tying the corset.

"I'm going to go check on Logan, OK?"

I walk out of the bedroom and I hear gasps of surprise.

"What?" I ask.

"Rory, dear you look absolutely stunning." Francine gushes.

"You look like Belle, Rory." Gigi reminds me.

"I won't be surprised if Logan stops breathing when he sees you." Honor smirks. "Speaking of which I'm going to go check on him and see how he's doing."

"OK." I nod. "Oh! Wait a second." I rush back into the bedroom and grab the plum clutches I got to match everyone's dresses. I hand one of them to Honor. "Here you go."

"Oh, thanks." She smiles at me. "That's sweet of you to do that."

"Oh your present's inside." I explain then hand one to each of them. I make sure to give my mom the correct clutch though because hers is a little bit different than everyone else's. I got each of my bridesmaids a pearl bracelet and for my mom I got her an open heart bracelet by Elsa Peretti. It has silver hearts and freshwater pearls. Gigi's tiara was actually pretty inexpensive so I got her a little pendant necklace. Everyone seems to like them…even Paris. Mom, of course, loves hers. I head back into the bedroom to grab my jewelry I received last night.

"OK, we've got to do the something old, something new thing now." Steph announces.

"For something old and you can also use it for the something borrowed, you can use these." My grandma flips a little box that she had in her purse open and I see the diamond earrings I've seen her wear on several occasions.

"Thank you. They're beautiful." I comment as I gaze at them. I remove them carefully and put them on.

"OK, now for something new…" My grandma continues and I stop her.

"I've already got the something new taken care of, grandma. Mom, can you help me with my necklace?" I ask as I clasp my bracelet. My mom obliges and hooks the necklace that Logan got me together.

"What a lovely bracelet, Rory." My grandma remarks as she fingers the charms. It's hard to tell if she's being serious or sarcastic.

"Thank you. I got it from Logan last night along with my necklace I'm wearing." I inform her as my fingers graze the diamonds. "He has excellent taste in jewelry." I declare.

"That he does." Lane jumps in. "I love that necklace, Rory. It's gorgeous."

"Yeah it is." I smile.

"I'm surprised that Logan got you a charm bracelet." Grandma mentions casually and I frown.

"I hope you're not planning on insulting the fact that he did buy her one, mom because Rory loves that bracelet and every charm on it represents something in their relationship. Had you and dad bothered to stay when she received it, you would know that." My mom snaps.

"I wasn't trying to insult her, Lorelai." Grandma states matter of factly.

"Well your tone says otherwise." Mom retorts.

"OK, OK, let's just move on." I clear my throat. "OK so the last thing is the something blue."

"Oh!" Lane pipes up. "I have that." She hands me a navy blue garter.

"Awesome." I remark as I slide it onto my thigh. I glance at the time again and it's 20 to 12. "OK so everyone ready to go?" After I get a nod from everyone we head out the door.

Traffic is a little heavier today so it takes almost the whole 20 minutes to get to the church where it normally takes just 10. I'm taking a few deep breaths to relax myself. I'm so excited! The limo pulls up with everyone filing out before me. When I step into the sanctuary, I find Logan talking to Finn and Colin. It looks like he's stopping mid-sentence as he sees me. He may have even stopped breathing.

"Logan…" I wave my hand in front of him. "Logan!" I snap my fingers and he jumps.

"What?"

"Breathe." I smirk at him.

"I can't help it, Ace." He shrugs as he flashes me one of his signature smiles. "You just look so breathtakingly gorgeous."

"Well you look pretty handsome yourself, Logan." I smirk as I give him a once over. He's got on his tux that has a hunter green vest and tie.

"You look beautiful, darling." Finn tells me as he gives me a once over.

"Thank you, Finn." I smile.

"You do, Rory. Are you sure you want to marry him though?" Colin teases.

"Well, yeah. I better since I already told him that I would." I laugh.

"Hey!" Logan cuts in.

"What?"

"Quit acting like you're marrying me because I forced you to."

"I'm not acting that way, dear. I'm marrying you for several reasons and at least half of them can't be said in church." I smirk and Finn and Colin exchange curious looks.

The photographer comes in then and announces we're going to start pictures. We start with the wedding party then my family and then Logan's. Those pictures take 45 minutes…it's now on to the part of our pictures where it is just the two of us. The other part is going to be when the ceremony is over and when we're at the reception.

We finish with pictures at quarter to 2 and retreat to our separate areas of the chapel. I'm not willing to tempt the fates here. Everything has gone good so far. Then again we haven't gotten to the most important part of the day yet though.

"Rory?" I flinch when I hear someone call my name. It's my dad.

"Yeah?" I smile at him.

"How are you doing?" He comes and takes a seat next to me and grabs my hand. He's grinning at me.

"I'm doing good. I can't believe how fast the time has went."

"Yeah, it has." He nods. "I can't believe my little girl is getting married today."

I'm looking at him and I swear I see him tearing up. I'm in shock. "Dad…are you OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, kiddo. I'm so happy that you and Logan are getting married. But I kind of feel like I'm losing you."

I give him a knowing smile. "Dad, that's silly. You're not losing me. You'll never lose me." I confirm. "You're just gaining a son-in-law. Besides you like Logan."

"Of course I like Logan. I think he's great."

"Good; I'm glad." I take a deep breath and look at the clock. Twenty minutes to go. "Almost show time." I tell him as I beam.

"Any nerves?" He asks as he stands up and pulls me up with him.

"No and do you want to know why?"

"Why?"

"Because I'm marrying my best friend." I grin as we head for the door to begin lining up.

* * *

It's here. It's time for me and Rory to become husband and wife. I can't tell who is happier, me or her. We'll put it as a wash. We're both equally happy.

I follow the minister out and watch as my sister and Josh come down the aisle. Next is Paris and Seth, Steph and Robert, Lane and Colin and last Lorelai and Finn. Of course now comes our flower girl Gigi donning her tiara very proudly as she drops the flower petals. She looks adorable. Having Gigi around is always entertaining and I can hear whispers from both sides about what a cute little girl she is. I smile at her as she gets closer to the altar.

"Hi Logan." She whispers.

I give a soft chuckle and whisper. "Hi Gigi."

The "Here Comes The Bride" song starts to play and I gaze to the doors at the back of the church as they are drawn open and I see Rory emerge with her father on her right arm and Luke on her left. With the way her family is we decided that it would be too hard for her to choose one or the other to walk her down the aisle. She asked them both and also made sure to mention that for the sake of everyone involved that they remain civil to each other. Things so far have been good, though.

Rory arrives by me and then gives a kiss and a hug to each of them as they take their seats in the front pew.

"Dearly Beloved." The minister starts, "We are gathered here today in the presence of God and these witnesses, to join Logan Elias and Lorelai Leigh in holy matrimony, which is commended to be honorable among all men: and therefore is not by any to be entered into lightly but reverently, discreetly, advisedly, and solemnly. Into this holy estate these two persons present to be joined. If any person can show just cause why they may not be joined together, let them speak now or forever hold their peace."

I'm holding my breath now. I'm still half expecting my parents to stand up and start lodging objections but thankfully, it never comes. I look at Rory and I see this glow radiating around her. She honestly looks like an angel…and she is. She's my angel. She saved me.

"Logan," I get a jolt back to reality when I hear the minister say my name. "Please repeat after me. I, Logan Elias…"

"I, Logan Elias…" I repeat loudly.

"Take you, Lorelai Leigh…"

"Take you, Lorelai Leigh…"

"To be my wife, my partner in life, and my one true love."

"To be my wife, my partner in life, and my one true love." I recite proudly. Rory's starting to have tears form in the corners of her eyes.

"I will cherish our union and love you more each day than I did the day before."

"I will cherish our union and love you more each day than I did the day before." I tell her and I see the tears start to fall now. If it were any other time and I would see her cry, I would start to worry but I'm 99% sure that these are happy tears.

"I will trust you and respect you, laugh with you and cry with you…"

"I will trust you and respect you, laugh with you and cry with you…" Rory giggles a little bit at that since she's near bawling.

"Loving you faithfully through good times and bad regardless of the obstacles we may face together."

"Loving you faithfully through good times and bad regardless of the obstacles we may face together." To be honest, I can't think of many that we haven't already faced together. We've hit a few rough patches but we overcame them brilliantly.

"I give you my hand, my heart, and my love from this day forward for as long as we both shall live."

OK so now it's contagious because I can feel the tears start. "I give you my hand, my heart, and my love from this day forward for as long as we both shall live."

"Rory, please repeat after me." The minister tells her. "I, Lorelai Leigh…"

"I, Lorelai Leigh…" She repeats strongly.

"Take you, Logan Elias…"

"Take you, Logan Elias…"

"To be my husband, my partner in life, and my one true love."

"To be my husband, my partner in life, and my one true love." She's still crying but it's not as heavy now.

"I will cherish our union and love you more each day than I did the day before."

"I will cherish our union and love you more each day than I did the day before."

"I will trust you and respect you, laugh with you and cry with you…"

"I will trust you and respect you, laugh with you and cry with you…" She recites with a smile on her face.

"Loving you faithfully through good times and bad regardless of the obstacles we may face together."

"Loving you faithfully through good times and bad regardless of the obstacles we may face together."

"I give you my hand, my heart, and my love from this day forward for as long as we both shall live."

"I give you my hand, my heart, and my love from this day forward for as long as we both shall live."

We hear All My Life by K-Ci and JoJo play which is the song we picked to play while we were lighting the unity candle. We each take our candles and follow the minister up to pulpit and recite the blessing he gives us. We light the candle at the same time then retreat down the steps to finish the ceremony.

I reach out and take Rory's left hand in my right and my thumb is running over her ring finger. In less than 60 seconds, I'm putting a wedding band there.

"Logan, please repeat after me. This ring I give you as a token of my love and devotion to you."

Colin gives me Rory's ring then I repeat. "This ring I give to you as a token of my love and devotion to you." She's starting to cry again now.

"I pledge to you all that I am and all that I will ever be as your husband."

"I pledge to you all that I am and all that I will ever be as your husband."

"With this ring, I gladly marry you and join my life to yours."

"With this ring," I recite as I slide the ring on her finger. "I gladly marry you and join my life to yours."

"Rory, please repeat after me. This ring I give to you as a token of my love and devotion to you."

Lorelai hands Rory my ring and she repeats. "This ring I give to you as a token of my love and devotion to you."

"I pledge to you all that I am and all that I will ever be as your wife."

"I pledge to you all that I am and all that I will ever be as your wife."

"With this ring, I gladly marry you and join my life to yours."

"With this ring," She slides the ring onto my left ring finger. "I gladly marry you and join my life to yours." She grins through her tears.

We're almost done; I can tell. Thank God. Not that it's been a long ceremony because it hasn't.

"Let us pray." The minister announces. "Father, your gift of love has blossomed and matured for Logan and Rory into marriage love. On this sacred occasion they have become husband and wife. We pray for your blessing on their love. Permeate their life together with Your presence. May their life together reflect the life of Jesus, their Leader in whose name we pray, Amen."

"Amen." Rory and I answer in unison then everyone else answers.

"By the power vested in me by the state of New York, I now pronounce you husband and wife."

That's all I need to hear. I don't even wait for the OK to kiss her; I just do. I wrap my arms around her waist, lean down and kiss her.

"You…oh, you're already doing that. Never mind." The minister chuckles.

I hear Colin and Finn start to laugh.

I pull away and grin down at her. She's still crying which just astounds me but she's got a huge grin on her face. "I love you, Rory Huntzberger." I tell her and give her another quick kiss.

"Wow!" She gasps. "I so have to get used to hearing that name." She admits. "But I love you too, Logan."

"I now present to you Mr. and Mrs. Logan Huntzberger." The minister announces and we turn to head out of the sanctuary as everyone starts to applaud. Amazingly even my parents do. I escort my bride out and have my fingers interlocked with hers.

"We did it." I tell her when we're alone in the hallway.

"Yep, we did."

"God, I love you, Rory."

"I love you too, Logan." She kisses me then. "I'm so happy to finally be your wife."

"Well, I'm so happy to be your husband." I kiss her again.

"Of course, I'm also pretty happy that I was smart enough to wear waterproof makeup." She admits and I laugh.

"Yeah, that was very smart." I give her a gentle tug. "Come on. Our public awaits." I lead her down the hallway and out of the church. As we leave we see people cascading down the hallway, the stairs, and then out the door awaiting us.

"Time for the real fun to begin." She smirks at me.

"Couldn't have said it better myself." I laugh as I kiss her then bustle through the sea of bubbles that are blown at us.

* * *

OK, I admit it; I couldn't stop crying during the ceremony. I got overly emotional. I don't know if Logan was really aware of it but I saw him tearing up himself at one point. I'm so happy that the ceremony turned out OK. Everything at the church went great. Now it's on to the reception.

Logan and I are riding in our limo to the Gotham Hall. My arms are around his neck and he has his around my waist and oh yeah our lips are glued together.

"How about…we skip the…reception…and go straight…to the…honeymoon?" Logan suggests in between kisses.

I start to laugh. "The plane doesn't leave for like another 7 hours." I remind him.

"Oh, I'm sure I can think of a way we could kill the time." His eyes have a devilish gleam to them.

"Keep your hormones under control, Huntzberger." I tease him.

"Yeah about that, Ace. I think it would be wise to not plan on any sleep tonight."

"So says the guy who likes to have sex only once a night."

"It's our honeymoon. I'm willing to make an exception for the whole trip."

I start to hesitate.

"What?"

"Yeah, well about that. We'll have to just make the exception for like the 1st 4 days. We'll have a little issue to deal with after that."

"God, are you serious?" He starts to whine.

"You will survive, Logan." I remind him. "Besides, it's not like we still can't do other stuff, you know?"

He raises a curious eyebrow. "Oh really? Like what?"

"Sure, I'll tell you. Just as soon as you tell me where we're going next week."

"Rory…"

"Really? Still no? Well, you'll just have to wait the 4 days, I guess." I tell him as I feel the limo pulling up. "Sad too because I was going to enjoy seeing your reaction." His mouth's gaping open now. "Oh well. Time to go party." I inform him as the limo door opens from the outside. I step out and wait for Logan. He gets out of the limo and extends his arm to me to escort me inside.

I peek inside the main ballroom and see that it's almost completely full. Over 400 people showed up for the wedding reception, though the majority of them are on Logan's side and people that more than likely his dad works with.

"Ladies and Gentlemen may I present to you Mr. and Mrs. Logan Huntzberger." I hear Zack announce.

We enter the main ballroom to the round of applause we hear. We smile graciously as we circle around the room. I wave to a few people that I see as Logan escorts me to the head table where the wedding party is sitting. He pulls my chair out for me and I smooth out my dress and sit down. The minister comes to the microphone and gives a blessing before we eat. Logan extends his hand to me and again and we head to the buffet table. Tonight, the caterers have made a huge spread including lamb, potatoes, six different salads and 3 different types of rolls.

The food's delicious. I have a little bit of everything on my plate. Not enough though that I'm not going to be able to eat cake. I did leave room. I make sure to because it's Sookie's cake. Three days before we moved, Sookie pulled me and Logan into the kitchen at the Inn, sat us down in front of 25 samples of wedding cake, and made us try all of them so we could have our perfect wedding cake. I told her she could make the wedding cake but didn't have to. This was especially since we weren't having the wedding in Stars Hollow. She was fine though with making it even if it was in New York. That wasn't going to stop her. We decided on a double chocolate chocolate cake that is to die for and buttercream frosting.

"So how's the food Ace?" Logan nudges my arm which bring me back to the present.

"Yummy." I comment as I take another bite of lamb. "What do you think?"

"Excellent."

"I can't wait to try Sookie's cake." I gush.

"It does look really good."

The main part of the meal takes a total of 25 minutes to eat and almost everyone seems to be done by the time we get up to go cut our cake. Sookie also made 2 sheet cakes besides the medium sized 4 tier cake. We cut a medium sized piece and then divide it in 2. I pick up one of the pieces and feed it to Logan. He gladly eats it and feeds me mine. He then leans in and kisses me. We get a round of applause off of that.

"Best cake you've ever made, Sookie." I call out to her.

"Thanks hun." She calls back.

We each grab a small piece of cake and head back to our table. It takes awhile for everyone to grab a piece though. About 10 minutes after the last person gets their cake, I see my dad and Gigi get up to make a speech.

"Hello, everyone. I'm Rory's dad and this is Rory's little sister, Gigi. On behalf of myself, Lorelai, and the grandparents, we would like to thank you all for coming to Rory and Logan's wedding. I remember the first time I met Logan…"

I cut him off. "Uh, dad we don't need to tell that story here…"

He grins at me, "I was talking about when I first met him at his apartment, Rory."

"Oh." I hear Logan start to laugh. "Never mind then. Please continue."

"As I was saying, I first met Logan a couple years ago. Rory had just moved in with him. I just remember talking to him and thinking that he reminded me of myself when I was younger. I think it kind of surprised Rory to know that Logan and I actually had a lot in common. I think it also made it easier on her. Since I first met him though, I've always known that he loves my daughter very much. The way they look at each other, it's pretty obvious. Anyway, I just want to say that Gigi and I wish you nothing but the best. Gigi," He points the microphone over by her, "Is there anything that you would like to say?"

"Rory looks just like Belle." She tells everyone and everyone breaks out into laughter.

"You can't tell Beauty and the Beast is her favorite movie, can you?" I joke and everyone laughs.

"Isn't there something else you wanted to tell your sister?" He whispers.

"Congratulations Rory." She then tells them and everyone applauds her. "Cheers." My dad raises his glass and we all toast. "OK, so guys," My dad looks over at Colin and Finn, "who's going next?"

"Actually, we are going to let the ladies go first." Finn announces to everyone.

"Yeah, we're doing a joint speech together so we figured we'd let Lane and Lorelai go first." Colin explains.

Lane gets up and heads to the microphone. "Hi everybody. I'm Lane VanGerbig, Rory's best friend and her Matron of Honor. So I've known Rory for almost 20 years now and we've been through a lot together throughout the years. It took some thinking to figure out what I wanted to give my speech on and then I thought about what Rory gave her speech on last year at my wedding when she was my Maid of Honor. She read a letter I had written her when we were in 5th grade and I had told her who I was originally going to marry. So I dug through all of my stuff and I found the letter she wrote in response."

"Are you serious?" I ask her.

"Of course I am. You went ahead and let Zack know that I was going to marry Alex Backus so I think it's only fair that Logan know who you were originally going to marry."

"So who were you going to marry?" Logan teases.

"Go ahead and read him the letter, Lane. Tell him." I smile.

"Dear Lane,

That spelling test was kind of tough. I think I may have misspelled a couple of words. My lunch was better today. I didn't have ham. Luke made me a turkey sandwich. His sandwiches are so much better than my mom's. She can't cook."

"Hey!" My mom cuts in and I laugh.

"It was 12 years ago, mom. Let it go."

"You can't cook either."

"True but Logan can and 90% of the time he does. I'm very thankful for that. Lane, finish the letter please."

Lane continues. "Congratulations that you decided to marry Alex Backus. You're not going to marry him just because his ears are the same size, are you? I don't think I'll get married until I'm 30."

Logan's eyes grow wide. "30?"

"I'm going to be a journalist and my husband needs to realize that. I think it will take at least that long to find a boy who gets that. If I was going to make a guess, I think it'll be Cory Smith. He's pretty cute. Anyway, I better go. I'll see you at Brownies. Your best friend, Rory."

"30? Really?" Logan asks.

"I said 30 because my husband needed to understand how important it was that I wanted to be a journalist. I figured it would take at least that long to find a guy who understood that."

"Well, I knew that the day I walked into the Daily News and saw you there."

"I know you did." I tell him. "That's how you got me to marry you 7 years early. If you didn't get that, I wouldn't have said yes."

"So anyway, Logan," Lane interrupts. "Congratulations. I'm glad that you accomplished the difficult task of getting Rory to the altar before she turned 30. To Rory and Logan." Lane raises her glass and everyone follows suit and Logan and I click our glasses together.

My mom then gets up. "Hi everybody. For those of you who don't know me, I'm Lorelai. I'm Rory's mom and her other Matron of Honor. Technically I was going to be the Maid of Honor but we had a race on who'd make it to the altar first and I won."

Everyone laughs.

"It may seem odd to most of you that Rory made me one of her honor attendants but to anyone that knows us knows that Rory and I are best friends. We always have been. I love her very, very much What's more important though is that I know Logan loves my daughter very, very much. Logan and I…we haven't always seen eye to eye on things. He knows that, I know that but honestly none of that matters now. It's all water under the bridge now. It's amazing what kind of problems can be solved over pie and ice cream."

We all laugh again.

"We covered a lot the night we sorted everything out and Logan made it known in not so subtle terms the way he felt about my daughter."

"Oh really?" I glance over at Logan. "You did?"

"I did." He confirms as he grabs my hand and kisses it. "Lorelai, why don't you tell her what I told you?"

"Well, he basically told me how he couldn't live without her, he's going to protect her with his life, and how he would do whatever it took to make her happy, especially when it came to being a journalist. But most of all, he told me how deeply in love he was with her."

There's a collective ahh…from everyone that makes me blush.

"So anyway…congratulations Logan and Rory. I just want you both to know that I'm so happy that you got married and I wish you nothing except a lifetime of happiness." Mom raises her glass. I'm near tears as we toast again. I've never heard her say that out loud before.

"Ace…you ok?" Logan looks over at me and frowns when he sees my expression.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I smile as my mom sits back down next to me. "Did you mean that?" I ask hopefully.

She laughs then grins. "Well, I couldn't lie, kid. The minister is sitting right there. I'd burn in hell for sure."

I laugh and give her a huge hug. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"I'm surprised you didn't give one of those toasts you're known for giving when you're at weddings."

"Well, hun, I'm normally drunk when I give those toasts and in my current condition I can't get drunk. Besides I figured this toast would mean more to you."

"It did." Logan tells her as he gets up from his chair and walks over to her. I watch with wide eyes as mom gets up and Logan kisses her cheek and gives her a hug. "Thank you, Lorelai. I really appreciate it."

"You're welcome."

OK, I give up. I just let the waterworks start and don't bother to try to stop them. "People! Stop doing things that are going to make me bawl, OK?"

Logan and my mom die laughing while everyone else chuckles. Seriously though I've been wanting to witness this moment for so long and now it's finally here. That was the only thing that could have happened to make my wedding day even more perfect and it has. I can die a happy woman now.

* * *

Never in my life have I ever seen my wife cry so much. Thank God they're all happy tears because otherwise I'd be so screwed.

I stifle a chuckle. "Ace, are you going to be OK?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine."

Colin and Finn stand up to give their speeches. "Hello everyone. I'm Colin McCrae and this is Finn Morgan and we're Logan's best men. We figured that instead of giving separate speeches, we'd just give one together."

"Guys…" Rory calls out and they look over at her.

"Yes, darling?" Finn responds.

"PG rated please." She advises. "The 6 year old is here now and you really don't want to deal with my dad if you say anything to corrupt his little girl's chaste ears."

You have to love her ability to use big words.

"You underestimate us, love." Finn tells her. "Instead of telling everyone how much we love you we figured we'd show everyone and that way they can see how well you fit in with us."

"You did another slide show?" She asks.

"That we did." Colin answers. "Now, a look at Rory from our perspective."

This should be interesting, I muse silently.

The lights are shut off and a title screen comes up and says, Colin and Finn's perspective on…

It flips to the next screen and says…Rory.

The picture flashes up of her in the ball gown she wore for the Life and Death Brigade and carrying her little notebook and pen. Journalist slides in underneath the picture. There are a few different pictures that come up. One where she's sitting at her desk at the Daily News sophomore year typing on her computer. One that was used last night and I'm sitting on her desk beside her while she's typing her article. The last one is of the staff at the end of her junior year about a week after she became editor.

"So what do you think of Rory as a journalist?" Colin asks Finn on the video. The picture had changed to them talking on the couch in their hotel room.

"Well, I think she's an extraordinary journalist." Finn remarks. "Don't you?"

"Of course." Colin quickly nods on screen. "I had my doubts at first though. Just mainly because when Logan said she'd be writing the article about us and the LDB stuff, I was unsure whether or not she'd be able to capture the essence of all of it but she did. She did it with flying colors."

"Well, I never had any doubt that she was going to be an outstanding journalist." Finn states bluntly then looks directly into the camera. "Darling, honestly, I never had any doubt."

"You're such a suck up, Finn." Colin groans as he rolls his eyes.

Rory starts laughing then I join in.

The screen changes to an assortment of group pictures. There's some of me included in the bunch but the majority of them are Rory, Finn, Colin, and Steph or Rory, Finn and Colin. Rory's grinning while watching the montage but when she sees my expression, hers goes flat.

"What? What's wrong?"

"When were these taken?" I ask.

"Umm…" She pauses for a moment. "I think it was when you were in London."

Really? When I was in London? There's a lot of pictures. "It looks like you guys were together a lot." I conclude.

"We were." She confirms. "Guys how often were we together while Logan was in London?"

Colin and Finn exchange looks then Colin responds. "I don't know. Finn, what do you think? Two, three times a week?"

Finn nods. "Yeah for like the first few months."

Wow! That's a lot. I guess I had never figured how close they had gotten.

Rory's eyes grow wide. "Logan…are you jealous?"

"A little, I guess." I admit. It almost seemed like they picked up their lives and continued on without me and forgot about me. That's all in my head, I know.

"You guys, you made him jealous." Rory sighs. "You need to tell Logan what we spent our time doing."

"We didn't really didn't do a whole heck of a lot, Logan." Finn tells me. "Mainly hung out, drank and tried to devise a plan to get your a…."

"Finn…" Rory warns.

"To try to get you back here with us." Colin fills in.

"You know, Steph was with us for all of those pictures but you don't see her in some of them because she's the one holding the camera and taking the picture." Rory enlightens me.

I just can't believe there's a whole section of her life I never knew about. Of course I can't fault her that though. She really didn't know anything about my life when I was in London.

"You know," Colin says on screen so we all turn our attention back to the screen, "when it comes to friendship with Rory, I think the best word to describe her is loyal."

"She's very loyal." Finn nods. "She's also pretty even tempered."

"That's true. There's only been a couple of times I can remember her being really pissed off…"

"Gigi, you are not allowed to repeat that word." Rory warns her sister.

"And that was when we were all in the hospital after that BASE jump in Costa Rica and when we visited her hometown."

"You can't really be mad at her because of the hospital, though." Finn argues. "Logan was unconscious and she was scared. And we really weren't paying as close of attention as we should have been."

"True, true." Colin nods. "But I think probably one of the best words to describe Rory is tough."

"Oh, she's tough. It's a good thing, too."

"Yeah, she's going to need it next week…"

I see Rory's eyes grow wide when she realizes that they're going to tell her where we're going.

"You mean, when we're in…"

Rory looks so excited about this.

Colin directs his attention back to the camera. "Oh, that's right; we're taping this, aren't we?"

"And we're not allowed to tell her. Logan would kill us, not to mention everyone else in the group." They look directly in the camera. "Sorry, Rory."

"No!" Rory snaps which surprises everyone in the room…all 400 people. "I can't believe you guys!" She pouts while everyone quietly chuckles. However, me, Colin, and Finn are laughing a little bit harder.

"Wow, thank you guys for doing that." She smirks which is not a good look on her because it means she's out for revenge. "By not telling me, the surprise I was going to give you, which was upgrading you to the Playboy Sky Villa suite at the Palm," She kisses her hand and waves, "bye-bye. And you," She stares at me, "Your surprise for the last 3 days of our honeymoon, say sayonara to that too."

"Oh, the other thing about Rory?" Colin tells everyone.

"She hates being teased." Finn grins.

"You do realize all I'd have to do is say one word and that whole trip would be off." She reminds us.

"But you won't, Ace. You're too loyal." I smile at her and the guys return to their seats. We applaud and Zack and Lane get up and head to the stage. I know it made Rory happy that we had Lane's band be our band.

"Hello again everybody. I'm Zack, you've already met my wife Lane." Lane's sitting down at her drums and waves to everyone. "This is Gil and this is Brian and together we're Hep Alien." There's applause again. "Welcome to Logan and Rory Huntzberger's reception. Right now, we'd like to have the bride and groom come out and dance to their wedding song."

I stand up and reach for Rory's hand. She stands up and I lead her to the dance floor. I hear the first chord of Love of Lifetime by Firehouse start and I pull her close to me.

"Remember the first time we danced?" I whisper in her ear.

She smiles. "Of course I do. It was at my grandparents' vow renewal."

"Want to know what's similar between then and now other than we danced both times?"

"What's that?"

"Your expression."

Her face grows blank when she realizes I caught her.

"Tell me what's worrying you about the trip, Ace." I ask as I twirl her around.

"I'm fine, Logan."

"No, you're not Rory." I argue in a hush tone. "Do you have so little faith in me as far as planning this trip goes?"

She scowls. "What? Of course I have faith in you. I wouldn't have married you if I didn't have faith in you, Logan."

"Then what is it?"

We hear people tapping their glasses and I realize this is the first time I've kissed her since we fed each other the cake. I lean down and kiss her soundly on her lips. She pulls away about 5 seconds later and smiles. I spin her around again and look at her expectantly.

"What?"

"Are you ignoring the fact that I asked you a question?"

"Logan, do we really need to do this during our first dance?" She complains. "We'll talk about it later. This doesn't concern anybody else and we have 400 people watching us right now."

OK so that is a good point. No one else really needs to know about this. "OK, OK, fine."

Zack announces that every couple should get out on the dance floor. We're now in a sea of people and Rory wraps her arms around my neck, bringing me in closer to her. If we get any closer, we'll be sharing shoes I'm sure. I'm starting to worry a little now.

"I'm not fearless like you, Logan." She whispers in my ear.

I pull back and stare at her. "You think I'm fearless?"

"I know you are."

The song starts to end and people disperse. Rory starts to head off the dance floor to her dad which is the next dance when I latch onto her wrist.

"What are you doing?" She asks.

"We need to finish talking about this, Ace." I remind her.

"I know." She nods. "We will, I promise." She starts to leave again but I haven't let go of her wrist. "Logan…"

"Just 1 thing." I tell her.

"What?"

I kiss her again. This time it's a little more thoroughly. We hear everyone start applauding and I break apart from her.

"I love you."

She grins. "I love you too Logan."

I give her another quick kiss then release her wrist and return to me seat. I now have Finn sitting in Rory's seat and Steph and Colin are on the other side of me.

She frowns. "Did we see you fighting on the dance floor just now?"

"Kind of." I confess. "It was my fault though. Listen, guys stop teasing her about the trip. She's getting misconceptions about it."

"Like what?" Finn asks.

"Like she's under the assumption that I'm fearless."

"Did you tell her you haven't done any of the stunts since the one in Costa Rica?" Colin asks.

"I didn't get a chance to." I reason as I watch Rory dance with her dad and she's laughing at whatever he is telling her. We lock eyes for a moment and she grins.

"How about you guys talk to her when I'm dancing with my mom?"

"Coward." Steph claims.

"Or don't. I'll tell her when I get done dancing."

"I'll talk to her." Steph tells me.

"Yeah, if you want us to talk to her, we will." Finn adds.

"Thank you." I smile.

The song ends less than a minute later and Rory and her dad walk off the dance floor. I head to my mom and glance back at Rory and see her talking to Steph then head out into the hallway. Oh, I hope she doesn't hate me after otherwise it may just be a bad honeymoon…

* * *

So dancing with my dad was fun. He was telling me the funniest story about Gigi and how she woke up at 4 o'clock this morning and refused to go back to sleep. He was able to speak a few magic words and she went back to sleep luckily. Unfortunately, it wasn't until almost 5 when that happened.

I walk off the dance floor and am about to sit down and watch Logan dance with his mom when Steph catches me.

"Hey Rory…got a second?"

"Well, I was going to watch Logan dance with his mom."

"This won't take long. I promise."

I sigh and follow her out into the hallway. I look back at Logan who smiles at me as I leave. I walk into the hallway and see Colin and Finn sitting on the bench.

"No, I don't think so." I tell them. "We'll talk later. I'm going to finish watching my husband dance with his mom. If Logan wants to tell me something, he should do it himself and not make you 3 do it for him."

"He's not making us do anything, darling." Finn informs me.

I smirk. "Uh-huh, sure."

"No we're serious." Colin tells me. "OK so we're sorry. We'll stop teasing you about the trip. Logan told us what you said to him and we wanted to clarify the truth for you."

"What are you talking about?" My eyebrows furrow.

"Rory, none of us are completely fearless." Steph enlightens me. "The fact is, Logan hasn't done any stunt since Costa Rica."

My eyes grow wide. "What?"

"Actually none of the 4 of us have done any of the stunts since Costa Rica." Finn tells me.

This shocks me to no end. I gaze at each of them curiously.

"Why are you telling me this?"

"So you'll get rid of the notion that it's forbidden to be afraid." Steph responds easily. "It's OK to be scared. The point behind these trips are to challenge ourselves and try something daring."

"I never back down from a challenge." I inform them. I feel a set of arms wrap themselves around my waist. "I did marry him, after all."

"Hey!"

"I'm just kidding, dear."

"Come on. It's time for the wedding party dance." Logan tells us as he pulls me back into the ballroom with everyone else following.

"Finn?"

"Yes darling?"

"We picked a song from your Tarantino party."

"Really?"

"Yeah, we did." Logan tells him.

"Well, great."

The song, Stuck in the Middle with You by Stealers Wheel starts to play. Logan has his arm around my waist as we head to the dance floor. The rest of the wedding party is close behind us.

"Oh, Rory love I thought maybe it was the Chuck Berry song from Pulp Fiction."

"You just want to do that dance again." I smirk.

"Of course I do, darling." He smirks back.

"Well, if you can find the CD or see if Zack knows how to play it, then you always can." I tell him as I start to dance with Logan. We have the entire wedding party on the dance floor. Gigi's being so cute with the way she's dancing. She's pretty good too for a 6 year old. I turn my attention back to Logan who's beaming at me.

"What?"

"Nothing. I'm just happy."

I grin back at him. "I am too."

I look back at Finn who is apparently sifting through CD's that Zack or one of the guys in the band brought.

"Wow, he must want to do that dance pretty badly." I note to Logan.

"Now all he needs is to find an Uma to his John Travolta." Logan adds.

My eyes light up. "You know who would do it?"

Logan smirks. "Yeah, your mom."

I nod. "I think it would be hilarious."

"So go ask her." He urges.

"Hey mom?" I call over to her. She's dancing with Luke right now.

"Yeah kid?"

"Why don't you go do the dance from Pulp Fiction? Finn needs someone to do it with him and Logan and I nominate you."

"Hey, leave me out of this, Ace."

"Wimp." I tease him.

"I don't know, Rory." My mom's hesitating.

"Finn!" I call over to him. "Persuade my mom to do the dance with you."

He saunters over to my mom and works his magic on her. It takes some coaxing on Finn's part to get my mom to go along with it but she does.

It takes a few minutes before Finn's able to find the CD that has the song on it. As the song starts to play, the rest of us step back and watch my mom and Finn do the dance. It's just so hilarious. I have to hand it to her, she does the dance better than I could.

I start laughing hysterically. The rest of the group is laughing too. Logan still has his arms around my waist. Finn and my mom seem to complement each other well. On the dance floor, of course. My mother is a happily married pregnant woman and Finn is…Finn. He's grown up though since I first met him.

When the dance finishes, they get a round of applause from everyone. I give my mom a hug and tell her she did an excellent job. We start to dance with other people now and the first one who comes up to me is Colin.

"You know," I start, "I may be breaking some kind of code with telling you this…"

Colin scowls. "Oh, good God what?"

I smile as I whisper. "Steph paid me $50 to rig the bouquet toss."

"What?" His eyes grow wide.

"I just thought I'd give you warning." I tell him as Finn marches up to us.

"My turn." He declares as he pushes Colin out of the way.

"Well, of course Finn. Take whatever you want." Colin grumbles as he stomps off the dance floor.

"Thank you. I will." He calls after him. "So how are you doing, love?"

"I'm doing great." I admit.

"I'm really happy for you and Logan. You two are the reason I decided to give monogamy a try."

I raise a curious eyebrow. "Really? With Kelly?" I ask about the girl he met months earlier. I know he's been out with her several times since our road trip.

He nods. "Yeah."

"Well, that's great, Finn. I'm happy for you two. Did you tell Logan that?"

"Tell me what?" Logan and Steph dance over to us.

"Kelly's nailed his feet to the floor and he's not minding it."

"Really? Changing your ways, Finn?" He asks.

"I think it's time to." Finn admits.

"Wow!" Logan genuinely sounds surprised. "I'm happy for you. That's great news."

"Thanks, mate."

The dancing goes on until around 10:30 when Logan alerts me we need to get going. Our plane's leaving in 45 minutes and we still need to do the bouquet throw and the garter toss and also get changed. I toss the bouquet and as I told Colin, Steph did catch it. When Logan throws my garter, it's not Colin that catches it but Finn. Logan and I share a laugh at that.

We're out the door at 10 to 11 and waving to everyone as we make our way to our limo. I climb in first and Logan follows. I let out a huge breath that I had been holding in.

"So ready for the honeymoon, Mrs. Huntzberger?" Logan grins at me.

"I really have to get used to hearing that name." I note. You would think that I had enough time to adjust but honestly I didn't. "Of course I'm ready for the honeymoon, Logan. The question is, are you?"

"What does that mean, Ace?"

"I'm just having a hard time picturing that you're going to last all night."

Logan cocks a curious eyebrow. "That a challenge?"

"Maybe."

* * *

**OK so hopefully you liked it. Next chapter will be Logan and the plane ride and the first day of the honeymoon. Like I said, I'm off the next 3 days so I'll be getting more chapters out. Review please! **


	23. You're Not Going to Last All Night

**OK so I'm releasing both 22 and 23 today. I think it will be better for all of you if I do. Besides, they're not as long as the last few have been. This is Logan's POV and the first day of the honeymoon. Hopefully you like them. Remember to review!**

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So we arrive in the Turks and Caicos shortly before 2 in the morning. Rory had dozed off on the flight and I had let her. I shouldn't have. I have a feeling it's going to be hard to keep her awake. I do have to say though it's easy to see how she was able to fall asleep. The seats in first class are so comfortable. They give you tons of room to stretch out and of course we had a glass of champagne before Rory fell asleep. She's been running herself ragged lately to make sure everything with the wedding would go smoothly. It doesn't matter that there was a wedding planner that Emily hired. I think her main worry wasn't the wedding but more my family. I think she was just as worried as I was that one of them would stand up and object but they never did. Shocking, I know.

"Ace…" I nudge her with my shoulder. She had fell asleep on it. "Rory…wake up."

"Hmm…" She mumbles.

"We're about to land." I inform her. "You need to wake up."

She slowly sits up and yawns. "That was a quick flight." She notes.

"Well, it is just a 2 ½ hour flight." I remind her.

The plane touches down 5 minutes later and we have a limo waiting to take us to the Somerset on Grace Bay. It's a beautiful hotel that has 4 floors. Rory had researched honeymoon locales for at least a week and the Turks and Caicos won out. Of course, it also made it easier distance wise as far as where we're holding the LDB event. In fact, it's only going to be another couple hours from here. But I won't be bringing that up this week. This week is just going to be relaxing and stress-free and only involve fun, drinking, and oh yeah, sex. Lots and lots of sex. I have to get my fill especially since now I only get 4 days.

The people at the front desk greet us warmly and hand us our room keys. They advise us that they're sending up complimentary champagne and strawberries for us.

I glance over at Rory as we ride in the elevator and she look as sleepy as hell. So much for my all night sex marathon. It looks like I'm going to have fun keeping her awake long enough to consummate it tonight.

We arrive at the honeymoon suite door and I sweep Rory up into my arms and she laughs.

"Logan, you really don't have to do this, you know."

"Yes, I do." I argue. "This is what I practiced for 5 months ago." I maneuver and get the key in the lock and swing the door open all without dropping her. I set her on her feet and let her roam around while the bellhop brings in our luggage and the maître'd brings in the champagne, the chocolate dipping sauce and the strawberries. They leave quickly after that.

Rory comes back into the living room after surveying the suite and declares. "This is an amazing suite."

I finish pouring a glass of champagne and hand it to her. I pour myself a glass then. "It's supposed to be, Ace. It's the honeymoon suite, after all."

She nods as she sips her champagne. "That it is. I'll be right back." She grabs her suitcase and heads into the bathroom. So this must be her changing into her naughty girl lingerie she's going to wear for me. However, a few minutes after she disappeared she hadn't resurfaced yet. I push the cart into the bedroom and take a seat on the bed.

"Ace…" I call to her as I take a bite of a strawberry. "You coming out or am I coming in?"

The bathroom door swings open and she steps out wearing a sheer pink babydoll nightie. "I'm here, I'm here."

I whistle long as I do a once over on her. God, she looks hot. I could not be more happy that this woman is my wife if I tried. "You look as sexy as hell." I comment as I reach out and pull her to me.

"Well, thank you." She leans over and kisses me.

"Come sit on the bed." I coax her down beside me with a tug of her hand. Rory comes and sits by me. I hand her the champagne flute she had put on the cart when she went and changed. She takes a sip of it and yawns.

"You're the one who's not going to last all night." I tell her.

"Logan…" She starts but I cut her off.

"It's OK, Rory." I smile. "We can always adjust the schedule. How about…" I pause as I kiss her, "we just consummate it once tonight and then we'll sleep and tomorrow or should I say later on today we'll do our marathon."

"And you're fine with that?" She raises a skeptical eyebrow.

"Of course. Listen, Rory, you need sleep. You've been running yourself ragged for the last week to make sure everything went OK with the wedding. Besides," I pull her on top of me, "I would like you awake for the whole marathon." I tell her as I roll her over onto her back and kiss her.

She pulls back and stares at me. "Logan…"

"Hmm…"

"You're overdressed."

"So help me out." I tell her as I watch her start to remove my clothes. I then remove the nightie and pull it over her head.

The next half hour is spent in pure ecstasy. My wife doesn't lie; we really do have an amazing sex life.

It's 3:30 by the time she falls asleep. It only takes Rory about 5 minutes before she falls asleep. Me I stay awake until 4. I just spend that half hour just watching her sleep. She has this huge grin on her face which either means she's either having a really good dream or she knows that I'm watching her. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the latter.

The next thing I know I'm waking up to the bright sunlight streaming through the deck door. Oh, yeah and also my wife's on top of me, kissing me.

"Mmm…" I moan. "If this is what married life is going to be like with you, we really should have gotten married a long time ago."

She smiles. "Funny, Logan."

"So how are we doing this fine morning, Mrs. Huntzberger?"

"I believe you mean this fine afternoon, Mr. Huntzberger."

"What time is it?"

"Almost 1."

Wow! Apparently, I was pretty tired too.

"How long have you been up?"

"About 45 minutes."

"I'm surprised it took you this long to wake me up. What have you been doing?"

"Honestly?"

I smirk. "Yes."

"Staring at my rings." She grins and kisses me.

"Is it finally starting to sink in that you're Mrs. Huntzberger?"

She nods. "Yeah, it is."

"Good." I kiss her again. "So how about a shower?"

"Before the marathon?"

"Take one before." I kiss her again. "And we can always take one after."

"What are we, fish?"

I laugh. "We will be by the time we get back to San Francisco."

Rory's eyes light up and I realize what I've just said then. "Oh, so next week will involve water. Very good to know. I hope you remembered to pack my swimsuit."

"Nope, we're all going naked." I tease and she groans.

"Logan…"

"I'm kidding, Ace. Of course I packed you a swimsuit." And she's not going to be happy when she finds out which one I brought. Actually she hasn't even seen it yet. I just bought it a few days ago before I came to New York. I bought her a bikini which of course she's going to flip out over due to the thought of showing too much skin. I had to do it though. None of the guys believe me that's she's been working out at the gym in my building. Well, that's a lie. I mean it took a little convincing but I think I got Colin and Finn to believe me. So I figured the only way to show them that I'm telling the truth is to show them the physical proof. Besides, my wife is still incredibly shy about her body. It's time she gets over it and this is the perfect opportunity to do it.

"But even if I didn't, you brought one for this week, didn't you?"

"Yes but I'm only going to be prancing around half naked on the beach for you. I've got no intention of doing it in front of the Life and Death Brigade group."

I become quiet. Oh, I'm surely going to hell for this.

"So are you hungry?"

"I'm starving." I admit as I bring her face down and kiss her deeply.

She pulls away and laughs. "For food, Logan. Not sex."

"Actually, I'm hungry for both." I kiss her again and she pulls away again.

"Food first, then sex." She tells me as she climbs off of me. She goes into the living room and wheels a cartful of food into the bedroom.

"Wow!" I exclaim. There's no way in hell we're going to ever eat all of this. "Did you by chance over order a little?" I tease.

"Actually, this is more than I ordered." She tells me. "I brought that up to the waiter who brought the food up and he told me it was compliments of the kitchen."

"Well that was nice of them."

"It is." She nods. "Maybe they anticipated what we would be spending our day doing and figured we would need to keep our energy up."

I laugh. "Yeah that must be it." I sit up and grab a plate from the cart.

"I'm hoping everything is still at least warm. It's been sitting there for over 10 minutes."

"I'm sure it's fine." I take a bite of the scrambled eggs. "Yeah, it's still plenty warm."

"Good." She hands me a cup of coffee.

"Thank you. So tell me how did you sleep?"

"Really good." She admits. "This bed is so comfortable."

"Yeah it is."

"So we should decide what we want to do this week."

"You mean you want to leave the room?" I tease her.

"What are we going to do in here during the last three days when we can't have sex?"

OK so that's a good point. "Well, we can go shopping."

"You'd want to go shopping?" She raises an eyebrow.

"Well, souvenir shopping at least."

"We can go swimming." She suggests and grabs a brochure on the nightstand. "Ooo…they have a spa here. We could go get massages, Logan."

"We could." I watch her eat with curious eyes. Mainly because she's actually eating something healthy.

She frowns at me. "What?"

"I just wanted to make sure you're aware of what you're eating."

"Why?"

"Because you're eating something that's good for you."

She looks down and her eyes grow wide at the fact that she's eating fruit. "OK so no. I really wasn't paying attention although it's not too bad. Just don't tell my mom I said that."

I laugh. The woman avoids eating anything that is remotely healthy. She looks a little disturbed by the fact that she was eating fruit.

"You OK?"

"Yeah, fine." She smiles but I can't help but wonder why that has her so freaked out. There are still a few things that I don't understand about her.

"So what else do you want to do?"

She sighs. "I'm not sure yet. I'm thinking about getting my haircut."

I stop in the middle of chewing. "Why?"

She shrugs. "I don't know. Time for a change."

I finally swallow. "How short?"

"Well, it wouldn't be any shorter than I had it during my freshmen year at Yale. It was a couple inches below my ears."

Well, that's good. I just can't picture her going any shorter than that though.

We finish eating half an hour later and each take turns in the bathroom and when I come back out, she's already naked. I come back to the bed and kiss her.

"Ready?" I smirk.

"Let the marathon begin."

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**OK . So it's short. I honestly don't know how long Rory's hair really was in the 4th season but it wasn't above her ears. The next chapter is being released today too. I figured might as well get them both out today and you can get the super long one tomorrow. I need reviews please! I love them! You guys really are the best with your reviews.!**


	24. The Marathon

**OK this is chapter 23. Chapter 24 will be a big chapter. It needed to be a big chapter. If you haven't figured out why from the last one, you'll know by the end of this one more than likely. Some of you,(hint Meg-Breanne :D) were already putting the pieces together. Hopefully the chapter won't be a disappointment for you. Please review. I really love reading them.**

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It's truly amazing. My husband, who normally doesn't want to make love more than one time a night, was true to his word about the marathon. The marathon actually consisted of 5 times. Yeah, 5; 4 times in the bed and of course once in the shower. It's been awhile since we've had sex in the shower. Normally, Logan is in such a rush to get to work that we never get the time to. He tends to make up for it by thinking we need to christen every room in our condo. Most recently it was the kitchen.

It was a little bit of a weird morning. Well, before the sex. The sex was normal. It was the breakfast. It was extremely odd, me eating fruit. Logan takes this as a good thing but, to me, it's beyond strange. The only time I normally eat fruit is when it's in some kind of dessert and even then I still have reservations.

I shouldn't let it worry me but it does. The thing that's running through my mind right now is the time a few years ago when my mom called me completely panicked because she and Luke didn't use any kind of birth control and she thought she might be pregnant. I mean, she was eating an apple for god's sake. It was a false alarm of course but still.

I'm racking my brain while Logan takes a nap before we decide whether or not we'll try round #6. It's kind of stupid, though considering we've already taken showers. I'm trying to remember if there was any time that we weren't protected. I honestly can't think of one…that is, until I remember that time in the kitchen. I switched the type of birth control I'm on and I guess it might not have fully kicked in. I knew that and I also warned Logan of that but he didn't care. I somehow have a feeling that he's going to care now.

I'm really getting ahead of myself though. Right now I'm not even late…that I know of. And I still have another two days before I'll know for sure. OK so technically there's been advances in pregnancy tests and with some you can tell almost a week before you miss a period. I don't want to do that just yet. I'm going to relish in the part of my honeymoon while I can.

I look over at my husband who apparently woke up and is now staring at me. I have no idea why he does that. He did that this morning too when I fell asleep, right after we got here.

"What?" I ask him.

"Well, you were far away." He tells me. "Where were you just now?"

"Just doing some thinking." I answer as I sit up. My hair's kind of a mess right now because we laid down on the bed shortly after we took that shower together and my hair was still wet.

"About what?"

"About everything that I want to do while we're here." I'm hoping that he's believing that lie. Normally Logan is able to tell when I'm lying.

"Didn't we already cover that?" So apparently he bought it.

"We only mentioned a few things, Logan and we'll be here for like 5 or 6 more days."

"Did you come up with anything else?"

"Not really." I confess. "Can you think of anything else?"

"Let me get back to you on that."

"OK." I glance over at the clock. Wow! It's already 7. "OK it's time for more food. Should we do room service or do you feel like venturing out?"

"Well, I was hoping I wouldn't have to get dressed. I'm really liking this 'being naked all the time' thing."

"I don't think they have any clothing optional restaurants, Logan." I joke.

"Funny, Rory."

"OK so we'll order in, I guess." I reach over to the nightstand and grab the menu. "What sounds good?" I flip it open and set it down in between us.

"I'm thinking lobster."

I nod. "Actually that sounds good. I'll probably get that too."

I put in the order and they tell me it'll be up in between 30-35 minutes. I get up and go into the bathroom and grab one of the nice, soft, fluffy white Egyptian cotton robes and put it on. I was actually getting a little bit chilly. How Logan's not is beyond me.

All of a sudden, I hear my phone start to buzz. I sigh. I couldn't even go 24 hours without having a call.

"I don't have to get it." I tell him. "I really should have shut it off."

"No go ahead and answer it." He replies. "I'll give you 5 minutes and then we're going to turn your phone off for the rest of the trip."

"OK." I press the talk button on my phone. "Hey mom."

"Ahh…so did you stop having sex long enough to pick up the phone for mommy?"

"Yes, Logan's nice enough to give me a 5 minute break before we start round #6."

Logan's eyes light up at that comment.

"I'm kidding, Logan. We're not doing round #6." I inform him.

"Oh yes we are." He taunts me. "It will just be after we eat supper."

I just roll my eyes and turn my attention back to my mom.

"Wow! Five times, huh? Going for a record?"

"Well, yeah. It's considered one for us." I explain. "So what's going on? Or did you just call to interrupt our tantric sex session?"

"No, I just wanted to tell you. Your brother or your sister beat you."

"Beat me at what?" I ask.

"At kicking. He or she beat you by a couple weeks. You didn't start kicking until just before 5 months."

"Should I be jealous?"

"I don't know; maybe."

"I'll tell you what. Let's give it about 5 years and then we'll compare notes. Sound good? Right now I'm just happy for you. Does Luke know? Did you let him feel?"

"He tried but the baby stopped when he put his hand on my stomach."

"I hope he didn't take that personally." I'm trying not to laugh but it's hard.

"The first time he didn't but after the 4th time he's starting to."

I burst out laughing. "I'm sorry, mom. I shouldn't be laughing. It's not funny."

"No, it's OK. I waited until he left the room and then I laughed too."

"Poor Luke."

"I do feel bad for him." My mom tells me.

Logan is now signaling for me to get off the phone. The man is so damn impatient.

I sigh. "Mom, I need to go. I'm getting looks from Logan that are telling me to get off the damn phone."

"OK. Go enjoy your sex capades."

"Thank you. I'll talk to you soon."

"OK, bye."

"Bye." Logan then grabs the phone away from me and powers it off. "My god, you are so damn impatient!"

"Well, if we're going to do round #6…"

I cut him off. "We'll do round #6 after supper, OK? I want to eat first."

"I'm going to hold you to that, Ace."

"Yeah, I figured you probably would."

It's 20 minutes later when the food arrives and I go to answer the door because Logan is choosing to stay naked. I do make him at least throw on a robe like I have on and join me at the dinner table. It would be too hard to eat lobster in bed.

"So what did your mom want?" Logan asks as he fixes himself a drink. I opt for a bottle of water. That's mainly because I don't know if I'm currently with child or not. I don't want to risk it.

"Oh the baby has started kicking. She just wanted to brag that it's like a couple weeks sooner than when I did."

"Wow, she's already doing the comparing?" Logan exclaims as he takes a bite of his lobster.

"Apparently. I told her I was happy for her but I'm hardly jealous."

"So what was so funny?"

My eyes light up. "Oh, every time the baby would kick, Luke would go to feel it and the baby stopped."

Logan started to laugh. "Did he get upset?"

And before I can catch myself, I blurt out. "Well, wouldn't you?"

His expression goes flat. "What?"

I then realize what I just said. "Never mind."

He shakes his head. "No, no. Explain that."

I sigh. I really shouldn't have said anything. "Well, I'm going to be pregnant eventually, Logan."

"Well, yeah eventually but that is still a ways down the road. I mean, we've talked about this and we're going to wait."

"Yeah, right, I know." I nod. I know what we said but that time in the kitchen makes me think we may have undid that.

"Then why are you asking?"

I roll my eyes. "I just wanted your opinion, Logan."

"I don't know how personally I'd take it. I guess I wouldn't know how I'd feel until it happened."

I take a huge gulp of water and dig into my baked potato that's loaded down with everything. "Well, I just feel bad for him. Granted I laughed but after 4 times I can see how he could take it personally."

"So what else did you talk about?"

"Nothing. You took my phone away, remember?"

"Oh, right." He nods and then we go back to eating.

We finish eating about 20 minutes later and push the cart out into the hallway with the empty plates on it. We then proceed with round 6 and end the night with round 7. God, I'm exhausted! Seriously 7 times. You'd think we hadn't had sex in like 6 months. For the next couple days I'm thinking 1 time a day is going to be enough to satisfy my sexual appetite.

I yawn as I look over at the clock. It's 11 already. I close my eyes for a second then open them. The room is pitch black and it's making it very hard to stay awake.

"Why are you fighting it?" Logan whispers next to me. "Go to sleep. I'll see you in the morning." His eyes are barely open.

I slowly nod. "OK. Goodnight Logan."

"Goodnight Ace. I love you." He gives me a quick kiss.

"I love you too." And within 5 seconds, I'm asleep.

It's almost 10 by the time I wake up the next morning. It's amazing. I'm normally not one to sleep more than 8 hours a night but I've just been so wiped out lately. I look over and Logan's not there. I frown for a moment. Where the hell is he? I sit up and yawn. I still feel tired. My stomach's not doing too great either. These are not good signs. In fact, warning bells are starting to sound in my head. I throw my feet over the edge of the bed and trudge into the bathroom. I look myself over in the mirror and sigh. I look so tired. Well, at least everything is matching between how I look and how I feel. I go to the bathroom, brush my hair up into a ponytail and then brush my teeth. I come back into the bedroom and search in my suitcase for my swimsuit. Logan's the only one I plan on wearing this suit for. I'm not big into bikinis. They're just so revealing…too revealing for my taste. I promised him I'd wear it for him for the honeymoon and he promised he'd never make mention of it again.

I find the deep violet bikini buried under the rest of my clothes. I slip it on and grab my beach towel. I open the door and find Logan at the breakfast bar as he drinks his coffee and talks on his phone to Finn. His back's to me so he has no idea I'm in the room.

"No, it's been good so far, Finn." He's telling him. "No, she's sleeping right now."

Not, I silently reply.

"I wore her out yesterday."

I roll my eyes at the comment. Men and their egos, I swear. That comment is the truth though. He did wear me out.

"What time are we leaving on Saturday?"

Really? He's seriously not going to turn around to make sure I'm not standing right behind him?

"Really? That early? We're only a couple hours away from there."

I'd love to hear where we're going because I have a feeling he's going to say it but instead I close the door quietly and say from behind him. "Really?" I see him jump. "We're only going to be a couple hours from there? Do I get another clue tomorrow?" I ask as I move in front of him. His mouth drops open when he sees me in the bikini.

"Thank you. That's the reaction I was hoping for." I tell him as I grab a water from the fridge.

"Have you been giving her hints, Logan?" I hear Finn ask and I grin.

"Not intentionally. Had I looked over my shoulder to see that she was awake, she wouldn't have gotten that one."

"Logan, say goodbye to Finn and that you'll see him on Saturday. If I have to cut my conversations short, so do you."

"I better go." He tells Finn. "We're going to go swimming and Rory's got on this amazingly hot little bikini…" I grab his phone and shout a goodbye to Finn and then hang up. I also turn his ringer off.

I glare at him. "You weren't supposed to be mentioning that to anyone." I remind him.

"I'm sorry, you're right. You do however look gorgeous." He tells me and I blush.

"Thank you." He pulls me close and kisses me.

"Good morning." He smiles.

"Good morning." I respond. "How long have you been up?"

"Around an hour and a half. Did you sleep OK?"

"Yeah, I slept great."

"Yeah, you must have considering you slept like 11 hours. I didn't think I wore you out that bad."

"Hmm…about that. We wore each other out."

"Yes we did."

"I don't think we'll be doing any more marathons anytime soon."

"Probably not."

"Did you eat?"

"Not yet. The food's on its way, though. Are you hungry?"

"A little." I admit.

"Just a little?"

"My stomach's a little off." I admit.

"Are you getting sick?" He's looking worried.

"I don't think so. I'll be fine."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'm OK." I nod. "Quit looking so worried, Huntzberger. I'm OK."

"OK. If you're sure."

"I am."

There was a knock on the door then so I went to answer it. It's, of course, room service and one smell of the food is really starting to set my stomach off. The restaurant person leaves after we tip him. I look at the food spread and realize the only thing that looks remotely appealing is…toast. Yeah, just toast.

I take a seat at the table and grab a couple pieces of wheat toast. It's already dripping in butter but it tastes pretty good.

"Coffee?" Logan asks.

If I don't drink any, he's going to suspect something but I don't know if I have the stomach to drink any. God, this is freaking me out.

"Yeah, I'll take half a cup."

"Rory, you're scaring me."

"Why?" I frown.

"Because you normally drink this stuff by the gallon." He reminds me.

"I know." I nod. "But there are times when I'm having stomach issues it just doesn't sit well."

"If you're not better by tomorrow, I say we should find a doctor while we're here and you can get checked out."

"Logan…I'm fine." I stress to him.

"OK." He nods. "OK." I think he's catching my tone and is deciding not to press it. Smart idea.

I slowly drink my coffee. It's tasting kind of bland. I've drank worse things though. The first thing that comes to mind is that drink that my grandma decided to name after me for my 21st birthday. That was god awful!

"Are you ready to go swimming?" Logan asks me.

"I am." I nod as I give him a once over. "You, however, are not."

"I know." He nods and stands up. "I'll be right back."

Logan comes back a few minutes later donning black swim trunks. I grin at him.

"What?" He grins at me.

"You know, you look pretty good yourself, Huntzberger." I walk over and give him a huge kiss.

"Well, thank you. Ready to go swimming, Mrs. Huntzberger?"

"We could…" I reply casually, "Or we could delay it a little bit longer." I kiss him again.

"Mmm…" He moans. "Very, very tempting Ace but maybe we should get out of the room."

I frown. "Are you actually turning down sex with your wife, Logan Huntzberger?"

"Of course not." He tells me. "Just postponing."

I roll my eyes. "Same thing. I warn you. I may not be in the mood later."

"So what are you saying? Your way or no way at all?"

"No, of course not. Just forget it." I grab my towel. "Come on. Let's go swimming." I grab the key and make my way out the door.

"Why are you mad at me?" He grabs my hand.

"I'm not mad, Logan." I tell him as I let go of it. I hit the elevator button to go down. The doors open and we get in. I'm watching the numbers and Logan is watching me. OK, so it's ridiculous to think that he snubbed me. I know he didn't.

As soon as the door opens, I head outside and there, 100 steps down the beach, is the ocean. It's absolutely gorgeous. It's crystal blue and it's like it goes on for miles.

"It's beautiful." Logan comments.

"It is." I agree as I throw my towel on the sand and speed walk down to the ocean. It's so amazing; the water is so warm. Logan comes in after me and pulls me to him.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm not letting you go until you tell me what your problem is."

"I don't have a problem." I inform him.

"Rory…"

"What?"

"Why are you acting like I'm rejecting you?"

"Uhh…because it feels like it?"

"I am not!" He argues. "I would love nothing more than to spend our entire honeymoon in that room making love to you but let me ask you something. If that's what you wanted to do, why did you pick someplace tropical?"

"You're acting like I was expecting you to throw the whole day away. I wasn't. You know what? It doesn't matter. Let's just forget it. It's not worth fighting about anymore." I tell him and as I turn to swim further out, I feel him splash me.

I turn back around. "What do you think you're doing?" I demand.

"What?" He splashes me again. "Something wrong?"

"Quit it Logan!"

"As soon as you relax." He splashes me again.

"Fine. You want to be that way." I send a huge splash his way. I'd say this splash war continues for a good five minutes before we call a truce.

He's grinning at me so I grin back at him. He leans over and kisses me and wraps his arm around my waist.

"Hey…"

"Hmm…"

He lets go of my waist and grabs both of my hands and leads me further into the ocean. "Come here."

"Logan, what are we doing?"

"Did you ever stop to think that it wasn't that I was rejecting you so much but like wanting you to explore your adventurous side?"

I'm staring at him confused. He keeps smirking at me.

My eyes grow wide. "What? You mean in the ocean? Are you crazy? There's like 2 dozen people on the beach."

"Where's the girl I got to have sex with in the Rare Book Library?"

"That was different." I argue. "It was 9 o'clock at night and there were like 3 people in the whole library."

"Come on, Ace. There was still an opportunity that we could get caught. This is different. Our lower halves are covered by water. Come on." He kisses my neck. "You know you want to try it." He taunts me.

"Why do you want to try this so bad?"

"Because it's fun. Something different to try."

OK so I'm worried now. Mainly because I have fear that my birth control is going to come out and get lost in the ocean. It's one thing in the shower but I'm sure as hell not diving in the ocean to find it if it comes out.

"What's with the hesitating, Ace?"

I explain to him what it is and his reaction…indifference. Like it's not going to matter that we wouldn't have any birth control. He's starting to kiss me.

"Logan…are you listening to me?"

"Of course I am, Ace."

"I don't want to hear any kind of complaining if you end up getting me pregnant."

"Rory…"

"You're given ample warning here."

"I'm well aware of that."

And so we have sex in the ocean. We do get some looks on our way back to the hotel which makes me smack Logan. He just laughs. As soon as we get back to the room, I go into the bathroom and check and see if I still have it; no surprise it's gone. Well, the good news is if I'm not pregnant right now I probably will be by the time we leave. Now I realize that without that in, my period is going to come even sooner. He's not going to be happy about that. Then again, he should have thought about that possibility. I jump in the shower real quick and wash my hair. I come out 5 minutes later dressed in a maroon t-shirt and jean shorts.

"Are you done in there?"

I nod. "Yeah, go ahead."

While Logan gets in the shower, I go ahead and get on my computer to check my email. There are not a lot of them but there are a few. I hear the water turn on and I decide to do some research. I bring up the Google page. This is getting the better of me. I have to look it up. I type in pregnancy symptoms and I bring up a website that talks about early symptoms. Wow! I already have like 6 of these. At this rate, I don't even have to take the test.

I hear the water turn off so I go ahead and close out of the browser. I feel weird about keeping this information from him but really I don't know if I'm pregnant yet. Of course I won't know until I take the test.

"Hey." Logan comes out of the bedroom dressed in a dark blue t-shirt and black shorts.

"Hey." I close my laptop.

"What are you doing?"

"Just reading my email. Nothing important." I tell him. It's not a complete lie. I did check my email.

"Are you hungry?"

"Yes, starving." I admit. That's what I get for only being able to eat toast this morning. But of course I wouldn't be able to keep anything else down.

"Come on. Why don't we venture out and go to one of the restaurants in town?"

"Sounds good to me. Let me get my purse." I grab it from the couch. "OK. Let's go."

We stroll through town hand in hand. Providenciales is beautiful. There are a ton of shops and restaurants.

"What are you thinking about?" He asks me.

I stare off into the horizon and see the sunset behind the ocean. It's absolutely breathtaking.

"That I'm never going to forget this moment for as long as I live."

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**OK so now you know the reason I released them together and you should probably have a good idea what the chapter is going to be about. I had to get the next one with both of their POV's. If I remember right I don't believe that Somerset on Grace Bay actually has a honeymoon suite but it is a beautiful hotel from what the pictures show. Need reviews please! I'll probably release 24 tomorrow late morning or early afternoon. **


	25. Three Minutes aka The Truth Comes Out

**OK so here's the chapter. Honestly this was one of the my favorites to write. This along with the Rehearsal Dinner and the Wedding. They're all good to me but those were my favorite to write. Also, review please! You're really the best!**

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**So it's now day 3 and 9:30 in the morning. I woke up an hour ago and Rory…is still sleeping. I'm finding it scary now. She's normally up before me. It wouldn't be so bad except for the fact it's not like she's sleeping 8 ½ or 9 hours. She's sleeping closer to 11 or 12**.**

I was glad to see her eat more last night. Granted it wasn't much more. This is starting to worry me. I go peek inside the bedroom. Yeah, she's still asleep. I close the door quietly and pull out her laptop. I bring up the Mayo Clinic website and under symptoms I go to fatigue. I dismiss all of the possible causes…until I get to pregnancy. Oh my god…could she be pregnant? I never put it together until now. It would make sense. She's been tired, she's not eating, she's been getting kind of irritable.

Now of course I'm questioning whether or not she's suspecting whether or not she is. Or even better if she's taken a test. I would hope she would at least tell me if she was going to take one. She has been off a little since we got here. I think she knows. I hit the back arrow at the top of the browser page. I stare curiously at the page. It's a website about early pregnancy symptoms. Oh my god so I was right. She is thinking she's pregnant.

My mind is kind of spinning. I can't wrap my head around this. We weren't planning on a baby for awhile but now that I think about it, Rory has been reminding me when we weren't fully protected. So I haven't been caring as much when it came to birth control and I probably should have been.

Then again, I mean we are married now. The wedding is over and I'm settled in pretty well at my job. Rory is going to be starting as the editor-in-chief of the online magazine at the beginning of next year. We moved into our condo and had fun christening almost every single room there. I get to thinking then. It was probably in the kitchen. That was like a month ago and she did warn me that she switched the type of birth control she was on and didn't think that it had fully kicked in.

At 10 o'clock, I call down to the kitchen and order room service. I order all of Rory's favorites. This is going to be a test in itself. I head into the bedroom…and she's not there. The bathroom door is closed. I creep closer and I hear her getting sick. Forget the damn test; it's like 99% a sure thing she's pregnant.

I head back out of the bedroom before she comes out of the bathroom. I take a seat at the breakfast bar and open up the CNN website. Let's see what's going on in the rest of the world. Rory comes out a few minutes later.

"Hey." She gives me a kiss. She brushed her teeth. I think she's trying to hide the fact that she got sick.

"Morning Ace. Sleep good?" I ask her as I refill my coffee.

"I'm in love with that bed." She grins.

"Hey, we've got a really nice bed at home, remember?" I remind her. "We tried out like 5 of them before we found a bed that we both liked."

"I haven't forgotten. Is the food on its way up?" She asks as she sits down next to me.

I nod as I take a drink of my coffee. "Yeah, it should be here shortly. Are you pretty hungry?" I ask casually.

"Famished." She tells me as I see her pour herself a cup of coffee. All the way up. Now we'll have to see if she drinks all of it.

The food arrives 10 minutes later. I pull the cart over to the table and unload the food. We take a seat and Rory's scanning all of the items.

"You got all of my favorites." She grins. "How am I supposed to choose?"

"You can always try a little bit of each." I offer as I grab the plate of waffles.

"I may just do that."

I am keeping track of just how much she's eating. This is the most I've seen her eat since we've been here. I just hope it all stays down.

"How's yours?" She asks as she takes a drink of her juice.

"It's really good."

"What do you want to do today?"

I shrug. "I was thinking like jet-skiing or if you want we could always go into town and go souvenir shopping."

"Yeah, we do have a lot of those to get, don't we?"

I nod as she takes a bite of her scrambled eggs. "But let's got jet-skiing. We can do souvenir shopping tomorrow. I plan on getting my haircut tomorrow too."

I frown. "You're still going to do that?"

"Of course I am. It will be nice to have it shorter again."

I haven't seen my wife with short hair since we started dating. I'm going to have to get used to that again. I'm trying to figure out how to broach the subject of the pregnancy with her. I have a feeling she may get defensive on me. That's the last thing that I want, of course. This is going to require some thought.

"Logan…" She nudges my arm.

"Hmm…" I look over at her.

"Are you OK?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. Are you OK?"

"Yeah of course. Why wouldn't I be?" She frowns.

I sigh. OK here goes. "Rory…why haven't you told me that you think you might be pregnant?"

She nearly chokes on her juice. "What? What are you talking about?"

"Come on, Rory. I was on your laptop this morning and saw you had looked up early pregnancy symptoms…"

"What are you doing? Snooping now?" She snaps.

Yeah, I figured it might start like this. "Rory, I wasn't snooping. I was on the Mayo Clinic website looking up fatigue because I was getting worried about how much you've been sleeping. I went through the list and ruled out most of the options until I got to pregnancy. I then got to wondering whether or not it had crossed your mind. I hit the back arrow and there it was."

She's being really quiet.

"Are you late?" I ask her gently.

"No." She tells me adamantly.

"Have you taken a test?"

"No and I'm not going to."

"What do you mean you're not going to?"

"Until I'm officially late, I'm not going to."

"You do realize you don't have to wait until you're late to take a test." I remind her.

"I'm not ready to." She admits quietly.

"You're not ready to?" I repeat.

"I'm not mentally ready to, Logan. Until I'm officially late, I'm not taking the test."

"And when will that be official?"

"Tomorrow."

"Rory, why didn't you just tell me?"

"I wasn't going to say anything until I knew for sure." She explains. "I didn't want you to get freaked out over nothing."

Understandable. "I'm not freaked out though."

She studies me carefully. "You're right. You're not. How can you not be?"

"Because you're freaked out enough for both of us." I joke and she gives me a small smile.

"Seriously, Logan. How can you not be?" She asks as she sips her coffee.

"Honestly, I was a little at first. But the more I got to thinking about it, you did point out when we weren't fully protected."

"I'm glad you remember me saying that." She tells me.

"I do." I nod. "And I got to thinking how everything's fallen into place. Everything with work is good and the wedding's over…" None of the things I've mentioned are making her relax so I try something else. "Come here."

She's hesitant, though.

"Come on." I coax her as I reach out and grab her hand. She slowly gets up and comes and sits down on my lap. "Promise me something."

"What's that?" She murmurs as she rests her head on my shoulder.

"Promise me you won't keep things like this to yourself."

She raises her head. "Logan, I had no intention of keeping this a secret."

"That's not it. Rory, you've been keeping quiet for days. You had an idea of what was going on and I spent that time worried about what was happening to you."

"I know." She slowly nods. "I'm sorry."

"Ace, I'm your husband. We can't keep big things like this from each other, OK?"

"You're right."

I give her a sweet kiss. "I love you so much Rory."

"I love you too, Logan."

We sit in silence for a moment and she's back to resting her head on my shoulder.

"Logan?" She whispers.

"Yeah, Ace?"

"Aren't you scared?"

"Terrified." I confess. "But, we'll get through this together. I promise."

**

* * *

**

My morning did not get off to a good start. I woke up just before 10 feeling completely sick to my stomach. I barely made it to the bathroom before I got sick. This is just great: yet another thing to add to the ever growing list of pregnancy symptoms.

I come out of the bathroom after I comb my hair and brush my teeth. Logan's sitting at the breakfast bar reading the CNN website.

"Hey." I give him a kiss.

"Morning Ace. Sleep good?"

"I'm in love with that bed." I reveal.

"Hey, we've got a really nice bed at home, remember?" He reminds me. "We tried out like 5 of them before we found a bed we both liked."

"I haven't forgotten." I grin. "Is the food on its way up?" I take a seat next to him.

He takes a drink of his coffee. "Yeah, it should be here shortly. Are you pretty hungry?"

"Famished." I admit as I grab a coffee cup and pour coffee in it. I fill it all the way up. I still don't know if I'm going to be able to drink it all. We're going to try.

The food comes soon after that. I'm watching Logan unload all of the food entrees. Oh my god, he really pays attention.

"You got all of my favorites." I beam. "How am I supposed to choose?"

"You can always try a little of each." He suggests.

"I may just do that."

The first thing I try is the pancakes. They're amazing. Next I try the sausage. That's really good too. I pretty well sample all of the items. They're incredible but what's most incredible is the fact that I have the appetite and stomach for all of this. I think Logan is relaxing at the visual. I think he was getting worried.

By the time I finish, I've had 2 pancakes, several sausage, 3 strips of bacon, a good helping of scrambled eggs and a couple pieces of toast. Wow! I really hope I don't get sick.

I look over and see that Logan's off in his own little world. He's got a strange look on his face. I don't know if I've ever seen this look before. He looks genuinely worried for some reason.

"Logan…" I nudge his arm to bring him back to reality.

"Hmm…" He glances over at me.

"Are you OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Are you OK?"

I frown. "Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"

I see him slowly exhale. I start to take a drink of my orange juice.

"Rory…why haven't you told me that you think you might be pregnant?"

OK so the juice goes down the wrong pipe and I start to choke. "What? What are you talking about?"

"Come on Rory. I was on your laptop this morning and saw you had looked up early pregnancy symptoms."

Oh my god! I can't believe him! "What are you doing? Snooping now?" I really shouldn't be mad at him. I guess it's just that he caught me so off-guard.

"Rory, I wasn't snooping. I was on the Mayo Clinic website looking up fatigue because I was getting worried about how much you've been sleeping. I went through the list and ruled out most of the options until I got to pregnancy. I then got to wondering whether or not it had crossed your mind. I hit the back arrow and there it was."

I really shouldn't have kept this from him. I'm feeling really guilty. I had my reasons and it's not like I planned to keep it secret for long; just until I knew one way or the other.

"Are you late?"

I feel really weird talking about this but it's not like it's with a total stranger. Logan's my husband for God's sake. "No." I reply quickly.

"Have you taken a test?"

"No and I'm not going to." I tell him adamantly.

He's frowning at me. "What do you mean you're not going to?

"Until I'm officially late, I'm not going to." I reiterate.

"You do realize you don't have to wait until you're late." He informs me. Apparently he's paying attention during pregnancy test commercials.

"I'm not ready to." I confess in a whisper.

"You're not ready to?"

"I'm not mentally ready to, Logan." I clarify. "Until I'm officially late, I'm not taking the test." I repeat.

"And when will that be official?"

"Tomorrow."

"Rory, why didn't you just tell me?"

I'm trying to think of a really good excuse. I really wish I would have told him. "I wasn't going to say anything until I knew for sure. I didn't want you to get freaked out over nothing."

He's smiling at me. "I'm not freaked out though."

I look him over. Oh my god. "You're right; you're not. How can you not be?"

"Because you're freaked out enough for both of us." He's smirking so I give him a small smile.

"Seriously Logan. How can you not be?"

"Honestly, I was a little at first. But the more I got to thinking about it, you did point out when we weren't fully protected."

"I'm glad you remember me saying that."

"I do." He nods. "And I got to thinking how everything's fallen into place. Everything with work is good and the wedding is over…"

That's true. The wedding's over and I know that Logan really likes his job but that's not enough to get me to relax. And Logan's realizing that now by the expression on my face.

"Come here." He moves back in his chair.

I don't move though.

"Come on." He grabs my hand and pulls me to him. I take a seat on his lap. "Promise me something."

"What's that?"

"Promise me that you won't keep things like this to yourself."

I frown. "Logan, I had no intention of keeping this a secret."

"That's not it. Rory, you've been keeping quiet for days. You had an idea what was going on and I spent that time worried about what was happening to you."

"I know." I whisper as I nod. "I'm sorry."

"Ace, I'm your husband. We can't keep big things like this from each other, OK?"

"You're right."

He leans down and kisses me. "I love you so much, Rory."

I smile. I must admit he is making me feel better. This conversation had a completely different outlook when it took place in my head. Once again I underestimated my husband. I need to stop doing that. "I love you too, Logan." I put my head back on his shoulder.

"Logan?"

"Yeah Ace?"

"Aren't you scared?"

"Terrified." He admits. "But we'll get through this together. I promise."

"I know we will."

"Ace?"

"Hmm…"

"How are you feeling?"

"I'm OK."

"Do you still want to go jet-skiing?"

I grin. "Absolutely. Let's go change." I get up from his lap. He's trailing right behind me. We change into our swimsuits and head to the beach. We spend the majority of our day at the beach and on the ocean. We take turns driving the jet-ski. We end up having a blast. It's after 5 by the time we get back to our hotel room.

"Do you want to eat out or stay in?" Logan asks me right before I step into the shower.

"We can eat out." I tell him as I get in the shower. I close my eyes as I run the shampoo through my hair and rinse it out. It then dawns on me that this will be the last time for awhile I'm going to have long hair.

I reach for the conditioner behind me and I still have my eyes closed and apparently my husband is standing right behind me because he hands it to me.

"How long have you been standing there?" I turn around and face him after I put conditioner in my hair.

"I just got in." He tells me as he pulls me to him. He then leans down and gives me a kiss. "Did you have fun today?"

I nod. "I loved it. You?" I rinse my hair out.

"Yeah. We should do that more often."

"Yeah, we should."

After I wash the body wash off of me I step out and let Logan finish showering. I change into a hunter green frilly top and black dress shorts. I come back into the bathroom and apply some makeup.

"So what sounds good?" I ask as I put my black mascara on.

"I'm don't know. What are you in the mood for?" He asks.

"I'm not sure. We should do some looking around and see."

"Sounds good. I'll be out in a minute."

I put the final touches on my makeup and then head out of the room to look up restaurants.

Today was a good day. Scratch that. Today was a great day. Spending the day on the ocean almost made me forget about the fact that I don't know whether or not I'm pregnant. Almost.

**

* * *

**

It's now 1 in the morning. We had went to bed at 11:30. I wake up for a second and see that Rory's awake.

"Ace…why aren't you sleeping?" I turn over to face her.

"You know why, Logan." She tells me as she stares at the ceiling.

"Rory, there's nothing we can do right now. You really need to go to sleep."

"I've tried, Logan."

I pull her over to me and envelope my arms around her body.

"Better?" I ask as I kiss her forehead.

"It helps, yeah." She mumbles.

I hold her for the rest of the night. I hear her breathing even out about 15 minutes later and I know she's asleep. I know she's really worried about being pregnant. I'm trying to be supportive here but sometimes it's just hard. I know she's not ready for it; hell, I'm not ready for it but we would have 8, 8 ½ months. I just wish I knew what I could say short of telling her she's not pregnant to make her feel better.

I wake up at 9 and Rory's still snuggled up against me.

"Ace…" I whisper.

"Hmm…" I hear her mumble.

"Time to get up."

"What time is it?" She asks.

"It's just after 9." I tell her as I sit up. "Are you hungry?"

"Yeah, I am." She replies as she sits up.

"I'm going to go order food."

"Sounds good."

I head into the living room to order room service. I make sure not to go overboard with ordering this time. Rory comes out a few minutes later with her robe on, her hair pulled back in a ponytail and her face red. She must still be late.

"You OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She tries to crack a smile as she comes over and gives me a kiss.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I'm OK. What time did you want to go shopping?"

I shrug. "I was thinking around 11."

"That sounds good." She heads over to the coffee machine and pours herself a cup. I had just made the coffee a few minutes ago while I was ordering.

"Rory…"

"Hmm…" She looks over at me as she takes a drink of it.

"Are you late?"

She frowns. "I'm still not ready to take the test, Logan but technically yes, I am."

"You do realize that you'll need to do it before we leave the island."

"I know." She nods.

"And you also realize that the longer you wait, doesn't mean the result is going to change."

"I know Logan." She groans. "I just want to go shopping and get my haircut. I'll worry about the test later." She tells me.

I really don't want to fight with her. It is her body and I don't want her doing anything before she's ready. So I just nod and say OK.

We change and we're out the door at just after 11. We picked an incredible week to have our honeymoon here. It's been like the most perfect weather. Not that we don't have good weather in California because we do. But the Turks and Caicos truly are a paradise.

At 11:30 Rory heads off to the salon. She tells me to give her around an hour. I question an hour but she tells me she might get a manicure done too. I kiss her goodbye as she heads into the salon.

I hit a couple of shops and I find some shot glasses for Colin and Finn. I also find them a couple of hats. Hopefully they like them. I'm walking down the street and across the road I spot a pharmacy. I head into the store and browse around even though I'm only looking for one thing. I'm not going to force her to take it right now but she's going to take it eventually and I'll save her from buying it.

I'm heading to the aisle that has the pregnancy tests and I carefully look them over. Damn, there are a lot of them! It's unreal that there's so many ways to tell a woman that they're pregnant or not. I choose one of them and make my way to the checkout. I pay for the test and put the small bag inside my bigger bag that has Colin and Finn's presents in it. I make my way back to the salon and peek in the window. I see Rory at the front desk paying her bill. Wow! She looks so much older with her hair cut short. It does look good on her though.

"Hey!" She grins at me as she comes out of the salon. She slowly turns around to show just how short she got it cut. "What do you think?"

"I think it looks great on you, Ace." I smile at her. It does look really good.

"Did you already go shopping?" She looks down and sees my bag.

"Oh just for Colin and Finn." I explain. "Should we go finish?"

She nods. "Let's go."

We head down the road to one of the souvenir shops. As soon as we walk in, she spots a straw hat.

"Ooo…that's cute." She comments.

"For whom? Your mom?"

"No, Paul Anka."

I start to laugh. "You're buying your mom's dog a straw hat?"

"Why not? He looked good with a turban so I'm sure he'd look good with a straw hat."

"When was he wearing a turban?" I ask as she grabs the hat.

"Last year for the winter carnival. He played a doggie swami."

I die laughing. "That's funny."

We spent a few hours collecting souvenirs for everyone. Jewelry was the main thing that was bought. Then again, most of the people we're buying for are women. Honor's getting a bracelet; Gigi, Lorelai, Stephanie, and Paris are getting necklaces and Lane's getting earrings.

We head back to the room at 4:30. I'm carrying two bags and she's carrying 2 bags.

"Well, that was a productive day." She declares as she tosses the bags on the couch.

"It was." I just stare at her as I sit down.

"What?" She raises an eyebrow.

"With your hair that way it makes you look 5 years older."

"Really? You think so?"

I nod. "I do."

"Is that a good thing?"

"Well, it's not a bad thing." I grin. "No it really does look good on you."

"Thank you."

I get quiet for a moment then ask. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm OK. Why?"

"Just curious."

"Logan…"

"I bought you something." I inform her as I give her the bag.

She peeks inside then scowls. "Why did you buy me a pregnancy test?"

"Because you need to take one." I remind her. "Unless anything's changed in the last few hours."

"No." She grumbles. "I bet you got lots of looks, didn't you?"

I grin. "Maybe one or two."

"You know, I would have bought it."

"Well, I saved you from buying one."

"No, you bought it to ensure that I would take it." She corrects me. OK so she's right; that was another reason.

"Well, yeah, that too." I nod.

She sighs as she stares at the box. "OK. I'll be back in a minute."

I nod. I honestly thought it would take more arm-twisting. She comes back a minute later.

"So how long?"

"Three minutes." She mumbles.

I smile at her and she smiles back.

Thirty seconds later, she looks over at me and says, "I've always heard that this time crawls. I had hoped that people were lying. Apparently they're not."

"We'll be fine. It shouldn't be too much longer."

She is right though. Every second feels like an hour. Why does this feel like a death sentence? I know that a huge exaggeration and it's anything but, but the wait is pure torture!

I look down at my watch and tell her it's time.

"You go look." She tells me.

I raise an eyebrow. "Really?"

She nods. "Yeah. Go ahead."

"OK." I head into the bathroom and pick up the test. There's our proof; she's pregnant. This isn't surprising us, of course but I think she was clinging to the thin ray of hope that she wasn't just yet.

I come back out and hand her the test. I then give her a hug and a kiss and tell her how much I love her.

"You OK?" I ask.

She nods. "Yeah. You?""

"Yeah."

"So it's real." She concludes.

"Yeah, it's real." She gets quiet then and it's an eerie quiet. It's not very often I see her get this way.

"Tell me what you're thinking, Rory."

"It's too fast." She admits. "It's way too fast, Logan. We just got married like 5 days ago."

"I know." I nod. "But it's not like we can rewind time here, Ace."

"Seriously, how are you not freaking out more?" She demands and I smile.

"Because while it is fast, you have to remember that we still have a fair amount of time to plan. We have longer to plan for the baby then we did for our wedding." I remind her.

"That's true but think about how fast that time went."

"Yeah, it did. We had 5 months with the wedding but Rory we're getting like another 3 on top of that."

"I know." She nods solemnly.

The way she's acting is starting to scare me. "Please tell me you're not questioning whether or not we should have the baby."

Her mouth drops open. "Of course I want the baby! I could never have an abortion, Logan nor would I want to. My mom was in a similar position when she was younger than me. Had she chosen that I wouldn't be here."

"That's right; you wouldn't be. You need to remember Rory it's a similar position but it's not identical." I inform her. "First of all, you're 7 years older than your mom was when she had you. Second you've finished all of your schooling and you're going to start your new job soon here…"

She cuts me off then. "God, that's right. I bet Scott will love that news."

"Actually he probably will. Ace, the guy has 3 kids of his own. Besides, why does it matter? He's not your boss." I smirk at her. "I am."

She rolls her eyes at me. "You really enjoy saying that, don't you?"

I give her a long kiss. "Yes, I do. Now, can I finish my list of why this is different than when your mom had you?"

"Sure."

"Number three. We're married and your husband is very, very happy that you're pregnant."

She smiles.

"He just wishes that you were as happy as he is."

She sighs. "I am Logan. I think it's great."

I give her a skeptical look.

"Seriously I am happy. Once the shock wears off, I'll be ecstatic. I just need a couple days to get used to it."

I nod. OK that's understandable. "OK. That's fine."

"Wow!" She whispers.

"What?"

"We're having a baby Logan." This is the first genuine smile I think I've seen cross her face in like the last 36 hours regarding this subject.

"That's right, Ace. We're having a baby." I lean over and kiss her.

**

* * *

**

So I did have a hard time falling asleep last night. I have a really nice husband who held me the whole night though. He was so sweet to do that. He wakes me up at 9 so we can get ready to go shopping. He goes to go order food and I head for the bathroom. I check to see and there's still nothing. I break down into tears. I'm just so not ready for it. I grab my robe and put it on and dry my tears. Logan's just getting off the phone when I come out of the bathroom.

"You OK?" He asks me. Such a silly question. Of course I'm not OK. But instead I tell him: "Yeah, I'm fine." I try to smile and I give him a kiss.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah I'm OK. What time did you want to go shopping?"

He shrugs. "I don't know. I was thinking around 11."

"That sounds good." I tell him as I pour myself some coffee.

"Rory…"

"Hmm…" I glance over at him.

"Are you late?"

I scowl. "I'm still not ready to take the test, Logan but technically yes I am."

"You do realize that you'll need to do it before we leave the island."

"I know." I nod.

"And you also realize that the longer you wait doesn't mean that the result is going to change."

"I know, Logan." I snap. "I just want to go shopping and go get my haircut. I'll worry about the test later."

I think he knows better than to argue with me so he just says OK.

I arrive at the salon just after 11:30. I tell Logan that I want an hour mainly because I may get my nails done. I take a seat in the stylist's chair and explain to her what I want done. After she's done I look it over in the mirror and grin. It turned out really good. I'm normally not big into manicures but I decided to treat myself to one today. Sometimes, it's nice to feel pampered.

I pay my bill at the counter at just after 12:30. I look over and see Logan outside waiting for me. "Hey!" I grin as I do a 360 degree turn. "What do you think?"

"It looks great on you, Ace."

I then notice his bag. "Did you already go shopping?"

"Just for Colin and Finn. Should we go finish?"

"Let's go."

I find the cutest straw hat for Paul Anka. I know Logan thinks it's ridiculous but I like it. I buy a lot of jewelry. I just honestly think that's the easiest thing to buy. You can hardly ever go wrong with it.

It's around 4:30 when we get back to the room. I'm exhausted! "Well, that was a productive day." I conclude as I toss the bags on the couch and plop down on it.

"It was." He's giving me this really funny look

"What?"

"Your hair that way makes you look 5 years older."

I raise an eyebrow. "Really? You think so?"

He nods. "I do."

"Is that a good thing?"

"Well, it's not a bad thing. No it really does look good on you."

I smile. "Thank you."

"How are you feeling?"

"I'm OK. Why?"

"Just curious."

My eyes narrow. "Logan…"

"I bought you something." He hands me a small bag.

I peer inside and groan. "Why did you buy me a pregnancy test?"

"Because you need to take one. Unless anything has changed in the last few hours…"

"No." I mumble. "I bet you got lots of looks didn't you?"

"Maybe one or two."

"You know I would have bought it." I tell him.

"Well, I saved you from buying one."

That's not why he did it and he knows it. "No you bought it to ensure I would take it."

"Well, yeah that too."

OK so I've delayed this for as long as I possibly can. So that's not entirely true. I'm sure I could delay it longer but I better not. Logan was right earlier. Just because I keep waiting doesn't mean the end result is going to change. I look the box over and exhale. I tell him I'll be back in a minute. I head into the bathroom and read the instructions. I take the test and leave it on the sink.

I come back out and take a seat next to him on the couch.

"So how long?"

"Three minutes." I whisper. I rest my head on his shoulder. "I've always heard this time crawls. I had hoped people were lying. Apparently, they're not."

He kisses my forehead. "We'll be fine. Shouldn't be too much longer."

But it feels like forever. Every second just drags by. When the three minutes are up, I have Logan go check the test. He come back out and hands it to me. There, in big letters, it states the truth. I am pregnant. Logan wraps his arms around me and gives me a huge hug. He then kisses me and tells me how much he loves me. I tell him I love him too.

"You OK?" He asks me.

I nod. "Yeah. You?"

"Yeah."

"So it's real." I realize.

"Yeah, it's real."

I'm still trying to come to terms with this. I mean, I want a baby, of course. I want to have more than 1 actually. This was just so unexpected. I honestly don't know if I'm ready to be a mom.

"Tell me what you're thinking Rory."

So I tell him the truth. "It's too fast. It's way too fast. Logan, we just got married like 5 days ago."

"I know." He nods. "But it's not like we can rewind time here, Ace."

His calmness, which could be considered a comfort, is actually very irritating.

"Seriously, how are you not freaking out more?"

"Because while it is fast, you have to remember that we still have a fair amount of time to plan. We have longer to plan for the baby than we did for our wedding." He reminds me.

"That's true but think about how fast that time went."

"Yeah, it did. We had 5 months with the wedding but Rory we're getting another 3 on top of that."

"I know." I acknowledge. His expression changes; it could almost be considered a state of panic.

"Please tell me you're not questioning whether or not we should have the baby."

I'm shocked he would even suggest it. "Of course I want the baby! I could never have an abortion, Logan nor would I want to. My mom was in a similar position when she was younger than me. Had she chosen that, I wouldn't be here."

"That's right; you wouldn't. You need to remember Rory that it's a similar position but not identical. First of all, you're 7 years older than your mom was when she had you. Second, you've finish all of your schooling and you're going to start your new job soon here…"

"God, that's right." I interject. "I bet Scott will love that news."

"Actually, he probably will. Ace, the guy has three kids of his own. Besides, why does it matter? He's not your boss." He gives me this coy smile. "I am."

I have to roll my eyes at that. "You really enjoy saying that, don't you?"

He gives me a nice, lengthy kiss. "Yes, I do. Now can I finish my list of why this is different than when your mom had you?"

"Sure." I nod.

"Number three. We're married and your husband is very, very happy that you're pregnant."

I grin at him.

"He just wishes that you were as happy as he is."

"I am Logan. I think it's great." And I do, but my tone isn't matching I'm sure which is why he's giving me a doubtful look. "Seriously I am happy. Once the shock wears off, I'll be beyond ecstatic. I just need a couple days to get used to it."

"OK." He nods. "That's fine."

I grin at him. It is pretty cool after all. "Wow!" I murmur.

"What?"

"We're having a baby, Logan."

"That's right, Ace. We're having a baby." He gives me a kiss.

"You ready for this?" I ask.

"No but I will be by the time the baby comes." He admits to me.

"OK so we should talk about next week." I start and I see his eyebrows furrow.

"What about it?"

"You need to take the baby into consideration. I'm not going to be risking this kid's life over whatever stunt you have planned. You need to make sure that nothing will happen to the baby."

"I will." He nods.

"It's interesting to think that in less than a year there will be a little Lorelai or Logan Jr."

Logan quickly shakes his head. "Oh, no, no, no, no. No way."

I raise a curious eyebrow. "Really? You don't want our son to be named after you?"

"Hell no." He seems pretty adamant about that. "I'm not going to scar the poor kid. Besides, we're already going to have one of our kids named after us. They don't both have to be."

"Middle name?" I suggest.

"Middle name is different. We can use Logan for a middle name but I wouldn't suggest it for the first name."

I nod.

Three minutes. It is a small amount of time but there is still so much that can happen in it. You never really think about it until something extraordinary happens and puts everything else into perspective. The baby was a surprise…an extraordinary surprise. And I am happy. I just hope I'm half the mom my mother was…

* * *

**OK. So now you know...she's pregnant. Also this is why I had to have her sign the same prenup Logan signed for her. If she didn't I thought that people would think he got her pregnant on purpose to have it broken. I'm releasing 2 chapters tomorrow. The 1st one is the LDB stunt and the other is the conclusion of the LDB stunt. After you read the 1st chapter you'll see why I'm submitting them both. So here's the thing. After the two tomorrow, I'm back to the present where I'm typing them all right now. All of the ones I wrote during writer's block are done. I'm working on the one right now that is after the last one I submit tomorrow. Also, this chapter was called two minutes but I did some reading and most tests take three I guess. If you see a two it should be a three but I think I caught them all. And as for the whole webpage thing, if she had it minimized I'm sure you can hit the back arrow and the page would be there. If she closed of it, probably not. Anyway, remember to review! The two chapters will be out tomorrow.**


	26. Hell at Angel Falls

**OK I'm sure you can tell by the title this isn't going to be happy chapter. I did tell you all it was going to get more serious. Hopefully you all still like me after this chapter. Nah, wait until you read both chapters before you determine whether or not you don't like me. Remember to review. I love reading them!**

* * *

Turks and Caicos Airport

7am

Why we have to leave so damn early, I have no clue. I'm still half asleep when we arrive at the airport to board Finn's father jet. The thing is huge! Logan is half carrying me. We walk by the terminal and I see about 25 of the Life and Death Brigaders standing in front of us. I yawn. I'm so damn tired!

"Hello darling." Finn greets me with a smile. "How was the honeymoon?"

"Hi Finn. It was great." I yawn. "Had lots of fun."

"That's great. Ready to have even more fun?"

"Yeah, sure." I nod.

"Well, that didn't sound believable at all." My husband comments.

"Well, I'll tell you what." I groan. "If you want believable, maybe you should have let me sleep when I wanted to last night instead of keeping me up until 2:30 this morning talking about baby names." I catch myself then after I said it.

"Baby names?" Colin repeats blankly.

"Yeah, for the future. Way in the future." I explain. Hopefully he buys that. I know how these guys have the ability to tell when someone's lying. "Isn't that right, Logan?"

"Yeah, I was just jumping ahead." He tells them.

"This doesn't have anything to do with the trip and whether or not I think I'll have fun, OK? I'm just tired, OK?" I tell him.

He just nods and doesn't say anything. He's already picking up so many clues so early in our marriage.

"Rory, I love your hair that way." Steph remarks as she sits down next to me.

"Thanks Steph." I smile at her. "It's been like 4 years since I got it cut this short. It's a nice change. A little lower maintenance."

"What do you think of her hair, Logan?" Steph asks him.

"I think it looks great on her. It makes her look older." He admits to them and I smile at him.

We're able to board the plane at 7:30. As soon as we're in the air, I fall back asleep. Well, I'm half asleep. I can still hear what Logan and his friends are saying. My head is resting on his shoulder. It makes for a good pillow; well, an acceptable pillow considering there aren't any on the plane. At least as far as I know there aren't.

"Is she OK?" I hear Colin ask Logan.

"She's fine. She's been kind of tired lately." He explains.

"You been wearing her out, Logan?" Finn teases.

"Yeah, right he wishes." I mumble with my eyes closed.

"I thought you were asleep." Logan remarks.

"Trying to." I inform him. "Sex has nothing to do with why I'm tired, Finn."

"So then why?" Colin asks.

"Long story." I tell them. "One that we'll be waiting to tell."

"OK." Finn and Colin answer in unison. I then fall asleep.

It's an hour and a half later when Logan wakes me up.

"What?" I yawn. "Are we there?"

"Almost. Why don't you go change?"

"Change?" I crack an eye open.

"Yeah. Remember about how you were giving me a hard time about whether or not I brought your swimsuit? So why don't you go change?"

I slowly sit up. I'm kind of dizzy. I'm not sure if it's just because I'm still kind of asleep or if it's from the flight. "OK. I'll be back in a minute."

"Hang on Rory. I'll come with you." Steph trails behind me.

"Do you know which bag Logan brought for us?" I ask her as I look at the luggage in the back of the plane. Steph goes rifling through them.

"Ahh…here it is." She hands me a black duffel bag and then goes in search of her own bag.

I zip it open and I find our beach towels and sunscreen and Logan's swim trunks and my swimsuit…except it's not my swimsuit. I search the whole bag and I can't find any other ones in there. I come back up and cross my arms over my chest.

"Logan, I'm looking for my swimsuit and I can't find it."

"It's in there. I made sure to pack it." He tells me.

"I found a suit but I want my suit. I'm not putting that suit on."

"Why not?"

"It's a bikini, Logan."

"And your point is?"

"I'm not donning a bikini for this Logan." I state matter of factly.

"Planning on going naked?" He smirks.

"Logan…"

"Ace, you have a choice: that suit, the one you wore during the honeymoon or go naked. Anything else will interfere with the integrity of the event."

I grumble. "All of you should pray I don't kill Logan during this trip."

Everyone is quietly laughing when I spin on my heels and head back to change. I head into the bedroom in the back to change. I look the suit over. Don't get me wrong; it's a really pretty suit. It's indigo with horizontal stripes. But that's beside the point. Bikinis are way too revealing. Logan knows how I feel about them.

I come back out clutching Logan's duffel bag close to my waist in an attempt to cover it. I'm getting looks from everyone which makes me groan. I grab my towel from the bag and then drop the bag in Logan's lap.

"Happy?" I snap at him.

"Oh my god!" Colin and Finn exclaim in unison.

I sigh. "What?"

"You look incredible, darling." Finn remarks.

"No, I don't. I look ridiculous." I wrap the towel under my arms so the only part of the suit you can see are the straps.

"Ace, quit it. You look great. Why you insist on hiding your beautiful body in that stupid swimsuit is beyond me. I packed this suit to show everyone just how much working out you've done. It's time you quit being shy."

"I'm not shy, Logan. I'm just not up for showing this much skin for this." I take a seat in the row ahead of him.

"It was the dress code for this time…" He tries to reason.

"Shut up Logan." I cut him off.

"Ace…"

"I said shut up Logan." I growl as I face away from him. My stomach's to churn so I start to take some deep breaths.

"Great job, Logan." Finn remarks. "You're only a week into your marriage and you're already failing at it."

"Shut the hell up, Finn." Logan snaps. "You're not helping."

OK so deep breathing is not working. If anything it's making it worse. My head is still spinning.

Logan peeks over the row and looks at me. "Ace…you OK?"

"No." I tell him as I bolt to the back and into the bathroom. I barely make it in time before I get sick. I kind of dove into the bathroom and ended up right by the toilet luckily.

A couple minutes later, Logan comes back and sits on the floor beside me and hands me a bottle of water. "You OK?"

I slowly nod as I open the bottle and take a gulp of water. "Yeah. I'll be back up in a minute."

"OK." He gets up and right before he leaves the bathroom he turns around and says in all seriousness, "You would tell me if you weren't, right?"

"I would." I confirm. "I promise."

I come back out a few minutes later and sit next to Logan. I'm getting looks from everyone. Steph's the first one to say something.

"Rory…you OK?"

I nod. "I'm fine."

"You sure?" Colin asks.

"Yeah." I tell him.

It's just after 9:30 when the plane lands. I look out the window and all I can see are trees. Groves and groves of them.

"Where are we?" I ask.

"Venezuela." Logan tells me.

Venezuela. Yeah, that would only be a couple of hours from the Turks and Caicos. I follow Logan out of the plane and I see 4 helicopters. The Life and Death Brigaders are filling them up quickly. I get in the last one along with Logan, Colin, Finn, Steph, Robert, and Seth. Once we're in the air, I look out the window and off in the distance I can see Angel Falls, the biggest waterfall in the world. It's absolutely breathtaking! I frown though once I realize we're moving closer and closer in that direction. I don't say anything though. Not yet at least. As we get closer though, I can actually hear the rushing water. Oh, God please tell me that he's not expecting me to do any kind of jump off of Angel Falls.

We land 15 minutes later…on top of Angel Falls. Dammit! That's exactly what they're expecting. I step out of the helicopter and I'm feeling light-headed again. It's probably the altitude. Or maybe it's fear.

I look around at the scenery. It's amazing. That doesn't help matters. But I can't do this and Logan knows that.

"Logan…"

"Yeah, Ace?"

"A word please." I yank his hand and drag him over to an area away from the crowd. "You expect me to BASE jump off of Angel Falls?"

"We all are." He informs me.

"No, we all aren't." I correct him. "I can't do this, Logan."

"What are you talking about?"

"Let's rewind. Do you remember the conversation we had a few days ago?"

"Yes."

"I told you that I was not going to do anything that would put this kid's life in jeopardy."

"I know. I remember." He exclaims.

God, he actually looks serious. "Really? And you don't think a drop of more than 3,000 feet would hurt a fetus? Damn it Logan, use your head!" I stomp away from him.

"Rory, wait."

"What's going on, kids?" Seth asks.

Logan sighs. "She's not doing it."

I start hear an uproar which of course makes me feel queasy.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Colin demands.

"I can't do it." I inform them as I hold my stomach.

"Rory…"

"What Colin?"

"Do we even get an explanation as to why you're wimping out on us?"

I become irate now. I don't need this. "You know, Colin. I really resent you for saying that. Do you honestly think I planned this? I gave Logan $100 grand to plan this damn trip. Do you honestly I would let him do that and not follow through on it? If that was the case, I have better ways to blow that money. I never said I didn't want to; I said I can't. There's a difference. I had every intention of following through but there have been things that have came to light in the last week that have made me change my mind, OK?"

"Like what?" Seth asks.

"Like the fact that the impact of this jump could cause me to miscarry."

"What?"Finn, Colin and Steph say in unison.

"Yeah, I'm pregnant, OK? Logan has known this for 4 days now and was told to ensure that whatever damn stunt you picked that it would not hurt the baby. He apparently thought that this would still be OK. He's wrong. That a good enough explanation, Colin?"

Colin actually looks over at Logan for confirmation. Logan nods to him. "Yeah, she is. She's not lying."

"Damn you two work fast, don't you?" Robert muses.

"Shut the hell up, Robert." Logan growls.

"Now if you'll excuse me. I'm going to be sick…again!" I yell as I turn on my heels and head over to a remote area to throw up.

After I finish throwing up, I look around and my head is still spinning. Oh, this is so not good. I feel so dizzy. I feel a twinge of pain in my stomach. Oh, god, I think as I feel something trickle down my leg. My fingers run across the inside of my thigh and my worst fear is now confirmed: it's blood.

"Logan!" I scream as loud as I can and collapse to the ground.

He runs over as fast as he can. "Rory, what is it?" He take me in his arms and holds me.

"Logan…" I'm having a hard time breathing. "Call the paramedic."

"Rory…"

I show him my hand so he can see the blood. "I really don't feel good." I close my eyes for a second and reopen them. I'm struggling to keep them open. "I think…losing the baby." My eyes close and everything fades to black.

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**Yeah I know cliffhanger but I'm nice enough to give you the chapter that follows it too. You know, I'd love to believe that this jump couldn't kill that baby but the fact is, if she would hit anything(god forbid) on the way down, she definitely could. By the way, Angel Falls is really in Venezuela and it really is the world's largest waterfall. Google it; it's gorgeous. Anyway, it wasn't long but Logan's followup chapter will be. Review but maybe wait until you read the follow up one first.**


	27. 28 Minutes

**OK here's the conclusion of the LDB stuff. I hope you like it. Remember to review please!**

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Twenty Eight minutes. It took 28 minutes to get the helicopter to us and fly us to the nearest hospital. I honestly was going out of my mind crazy. I felt like I wanted to die. I just started to scream her name as she laid there helpless in my arms. She was breathing but it was very shallow. I have never been more terrified of anything in my whole life.

When the helicopter arrived, it's only me that's allowed to fly along. One of the medics informed everyone else that they'll send helicopters for them. The medics asked me questions and I'm tried to answer all of them. They're asked about the pregnancy and I told them as much as I know.

And now, 20 minutes after we arrived, I'm waiting for any news I can get on my wife. Colin, Steph, and Finn show up half an hour after I got to the hospital.

"Any news?" Steph asks as she sits down next to me.

I quickly shake my head. "Not yet."

"She'll be OK, Logan." Finn tells me.

"Thanks, Finn but I'd rather hear that from the doctor." I mumble. "God, a week. We've only been married a week and we've already been through so much."

"Yeah, a baby. I will tell you that I didn't expect to hear that new so soon." Colin informs me.

"Consider yourselves special because Lorelai doesn't even know yet."

"Have you called her yet?" Steph asks.

"I will as soon as I hear whether or not they'll have her stay in Venezuela or fly her to the US. I don't want her to come down here if we head back to the US."

"Good point, mate. So how are you dealing with the being a father thing?"

"I've been doing pretty good with it. Rory's taking a little longer to adjust."

"She's not happy?" Steph frowns.

"No, I think she's happy. It just came as a shock to us. We were wanting to wait awhile before we had a baby. It's taken a few days but I think she's happy." I then realize that I don't have a clue how either one of them are doing. I can't hold it back anymore. I start to cry. "God, I don't know what I'll do if I lose them."

"You're not going to lose them, Logan." Steph remarks firmly as she wraps her arm around me.

I see a doctor off in the distance walking in our general direction. He's an older man, probably 50's, tall, black hair, medium build, and black glasses.

"Excuse me…Mr. Huntzberger?"

"Yes?" I fly out of my seat.

He extends his hand to me. "I'm Dr. Casella. I was the attending doctor when your wife was brought in."

"How is she?" I ask.

"She's doing very well." He tells me and I take a huge sigh of relief.

"Thank God."

"She was very dehydrated though."

"Is that part of the reason why she has been so tired?" I ask.

"That has a great amount to do with it. Pregnancy in general can make a woman very tired though."

"Speaking of which, how's the baby?" Colin asks as I hold my breath waiting for an answer.

"The baby's fine."

I slowly exhale. My prayers are being answered.

"We did an ultrasound and everything appears to be OK. However, I do recommend having another ultrasound done when you get back to the US."

"Can I see her?"

The doctor smiles and nods. "Of course. Right this way."

"I'll be back guys." I tell them as I follow the doctor down the hallway. "Is she awake?"

The doctor shakes his head. "No, she's still sleeping. She will be able to be transported back to the US within a couple hours. I am recommending hospital care for at least a couple days and getting that follow up ultrasound."

I nod. "I understand."

We arrive at the door to Rory's room and the doctor is hesitating. "Before we go in, I need to ask you a question, Mr. Huntzberger."

God, being called that makes me feel so old. "Logan, please. Sure, what question."

"Umm…Logan. Has your wife been under unusually high amounts of stress?"

I sigh. "Yes, she has. We got married last week and she's been planning the whole thing over the last 5 months. We hired a planner but she didn't get a chance to do much of the planning. Rory did most of it."

"Anything else that you can think of that could help contribute to the stress?"

"Well, the baby's been very unexpected. We just found out a few days ago."

He nods. "I see. Listen, Logan, you will need to keep close watch on her stress level and try to keep it to a minimum as much as possible. Huge amounts of stress regardless of the circumstances are never good for anyone but for pregnant women it can elevate to all sorts of complications." He explains.

"Including miscarriage?" I ask quietly.

"Well, there hasn't been any scientific proof that stress can cause a miscarriage but that still doesn't mean that it can't be harmful to her health."

"I understand." I nod. "I promise I'll keep close tabs on her."

"Excellent. Go ahead and go in. I'll be in soon to check on her."

"Thank you, doctor." I shake his hand.

"You're welcome."

I head into Rory's room and look around. It's not a big room but it's private. She's still asleep. She's hooked up to a machine that's taking her blood pressure and pulse and she has an IV in her hand.

I take a seat on a plastic chair next to her bed. I grab her hand in mine. "Hey Ace." I kiss her hand. "I'm right here. I just got done talking to the doctor and he says you're going to be fine" I watch her as I talk to her. I watch her breathe in and out and I'm hoping I can get some kind of reaction out of her. Nothing yet though.

"Rory, I need you to wake up." I plead with her. "I need you to wake up so you can hear me tell you how sorry I am. I should have known better than to try to go through with this stunt. I wasn't thinking and I should have been. I'm so sorry, Ace."

Just then I feel her squeeze my hand. I look up and see her eyes crack open. "Rory?"

"Logan."

I lean forward and give her a quick kiss. "Ahh…Ace. You have no idea how happy I am to see you awake. How do you feel?"

"Tired." She mumbles. "What happened?"

"You…fainted when we on top of Angel Falls." I tell her as I stroke her hair.

"I got…so dizzy. I remember…" She pauses as she's trying to collect her thoughts. "seeing blood. Oh, God Logan the baby…" She starts to wail.

"Is fine." I tell her.

"Really?" She's trying to hold back the tears. "Are you sure?"

"I'm positive. I've talked to the doctor who has said that an ultrasound was done and everything looked OK."

"Logan…I got so scared." She starts to sob. I get up and give her a quick hug. I then take a seat on the edge of her bed.

"I know, Ace. But the baby is fine." I keep stroking her hair to calm her down.

A moment later, we hear a knock on the door and Dr. Casella comes in. "Hello, Mrs. Huntzberger, I'm Dr. Casella. I'm the doctor who has been treating you. How are you feeling?"

"Pretty tired. Groggy."

The doctor nods. "Yes, I'm sure you are. You were very dehydrated when you came in. We have been replenishing your fluid intake and have been giving you electrolytes through the IV."

"The baby is OK?"

"Yes, it appears the baby is just fine. However, you will need to be making some changes."

She nods. "I know."

"You need to be keeping you stress level as low as possible. Now I've already talked to your husband about this. He has explained what kind of stress you've been under…"

I hear her groan. "Logan…"

"Rory, I'm not going to lie for you. Not when it comes to your health." I inform her and she gets quiet.  
"Now we did do an ultrasound and everything looks OK. We will be getting you transported back to New York in the next hour. I have told your husband that I'm recommending that you stay in the hospital for a couple days and I'm having the hospital do a follow up ultrasound."

"I thought everything was fine." She frowns.

"Everything is but in Venezuela our equipment has yet to have some of the advances that the US has with theirs. I am sure everything is OK."

"Calm down, Rory." I whisper. "Everything will be fine."

She nods. "OK." I watch her close her eyes and reopen them.

"Do you have any questions for me?" The doctor asks both of us.

She shakes her head.

"No, I'm good." I shake his hand. "Thank you Dr. Casella for all of your help. We really appreciate it."

Rory nods. "Yes, thank you."

"You're welcome. Remember to take it easy and congratulations."

"Thank you." We answer in unison.

The doctor leaves and I turn back to my wife who is struggling to keep her eyes open. "Why don't you go back to sleep? I'm going to go give Colin, Steph and Finn an update." I get up from the edge of her bed.

She nods as I head for the door. "Logan?" She calls out.

I turn around. "Yeah?"

"I love you."

I walk back over to her, smiling and I give her a kiss. "I love you too, Ace. I'll be right back." I head back into the waiting room and see all 3 of them patiently waiting.

"How is she?" Colin asks.

"She's doing OK. She's pretty wiped out. She's going to be transferred to New York shortly. You guys can visit her there if you want. She just fell back asleep."

"So what did the doctor say?" Steph asks.

"Just that she needed to take it easy and watch her stress level. I told him that I would make sure she did."

"Going to be watching her like a hawk, huh?" Finn asks.

I nod. "You bet and when she starts working, I have the advantage of being her boss. If I find things are getting too stressful, I send her home."

"She'd hate you then." Steph comments.

"This is my kid we're talking about. Besides, I think this happening scared the crap out of her. Hopefully, things will change."

"I'm sure they will." Steph smiles.

"OK, I better get back. I need to call Lorelai and let her know what's going on." I say goodbye to all of them and head back to just outside her room. I pull out Rory's phone from inside my pocket and dial her mom.

It rings 3 times before she picks up.

"Hello my darling…"

I cut her off though. "No, Lorelai it's me."

"Son in law." She finishes. "Logan, what's going on? Where's Rory?"

"She's sleeping right now."

"What's going on?"

"While we were at the stunt, she passed out because of dehydration."

"What?" She screams.

"She's OK, Lorelai. She had been getting sick and feeling tired. We got her rushed to the hospital in Venezuela. They have her hooked up to an IV and they've been replenishing her fluids. She's doing OK."

"Oh my god. Wait, did you say that she's been getting sick?"

"Yes. She has but she's doing better. I'll let her tell you why though. Look, the reason I'm calling is that we're getting flown to New York. She'll be at Columbia Presbyterian. We haven't left yet so it's going to be awhile."

"Is she conscious?" I think I hear her crying. I can't say with 100% certainty though. It wouldn't surprise me though.

"Well, she's conscious but she is sleeping right now." I explain quietly.

"Can…can I talk to her?"

I want to say not right now because I think she should sleep but this is Lorelai. "OK. Hold on."

"Thank you Logan."

I walk back into her room and she did fall back asleep. I kiss her forehead. "Ace…" I whisper.

"Hmm…" She mumbles.

"Your mom wants to talk to you." I grab her hand and gently put the phone in it.

"Hi mom." She whispers.

"Rory! Oh my god! I swear Logan just took 20 years off my life when he told me you're in the hospital." I hear her exclaim.

"I'm OK, mom. Just really tired." She mumbles.

"OK, well I'll be at the hospital when you get there."

"OK. I'm going to back to sleep now."

"OK, I'll see you soon." I hear Lorelai say.

"OK. Bye mommy. I love you."

"I love you too kid."

I get the phone back from Rory and tell Lorelai we will be leaving shortly. I think she really wants to know why Rory's been getting sick. I tell her it's a long and convoluted story that we'll tell her when we see her in person.

The flight to New York took almost 5 hours. Rory slept the entire way because they sedated her. I slept about ¾ of the way and about 20 minutes before we are set to land, I send a text to Lorelai letting her know. She tells me she's on her way.

As soon as we arrive, Rory gets checked in and within 10 minutes she goes and has blood work done and the ultrasound. I'm sitting in the waiting room patiently. Ten minutes later, I see Lorelai, Luke, and Christopher rushing towards me.

"How is she?" Christopher asks.

"She's fine. She's having tests done. It shouldn't be too much longer."

"Logan, what the hell happened?" Luke demands.

I sigh. "Rory has been really tired lately. I had just thought it was because of all the stress of the wedding. The first few days of the honeymoon she slept 11 or 12 hours each night. The third day I heard her get sick."

"Didn't she go to the doctor?" Lorelai asks.

"I told her if she wasn't better by the next day she was going to the doctor."

"And?"

"'Logan, I'm fine!'" I imitate her. "You know your daughter, Lorelai."

"Yes, I do." Lorelai grumbles.

"The doctor in Venezuela had a talk with her about her stress level. I think he got through to her."

"How can you be so sure?" Chris asks.

Just then, I see a doctor making his way to me. I had seen him earlier. He's tall, blond, and around 30.

"Mr. Huntzberger?"

"Yes?" I respond.

"Hi, I'm Dr. Chad Roberts." He shakes my head. "I ran your wife's tests."

"How is she?" Luke asks.

"She's doing great." He confirms for them. "All of the blood work looks good. As for the ultrasound, I don't see any kind of problem. I believe the blood is just old blood. It has nothing having to do with any kind of miscarriage."

I see 3 sets of eyes grow huge.

"After reviewing the ultrasound, I would say that your wife is approximately 5 weeks along."

I do mental math. Yeah, that was roughly around the time of that kitchen incident.

"Five weeks along?" Lorelai exclaims. "Wait, she's pregnant?"

"Uhh…Dr. Roberts, what room is she in?"

"425. It's right down the hall here." He explains.

"Is she awake?" I ask.

He nods. "Yes, she is."

I smile. "Thank you."

The doctor leaves and I'm left with 3 people giving me evil glares.

"That's how I'm sure, Chris. There's a baby involved." No one is looking amused here. "Hey, umm…could you guys stop giving me these death glares here? I'm starting to feel like we're all back in that country club dressing room and you walked in on me and Rory." They're still not relaxing. "Look, I never meant for you guys to find out this way. Rory and I were going to tell you as soon as we got back."

"How long have you known?" Lorelai asks.

"Three or four days. We've been adjusting to it. It was a huge surprise. After the 3rd day of Rory sleeping 12 hours, I went on the internet and did some research. I put in her symptoms and pregnancy was one thing that had came up. We talked about it, she took the test and it came back positive. We spent the last few days getting acclimated to it."

"Is Rory happy about it?" Luke asks and I think he surprises Lorelai by asking that.

"Luke…" She whispers.

"Look, Lorelai, I know you're shocked. I am too but honestly, if Rory is happy then you don't want to her sad. Besides, it wouldn't be a grandmotherly thing to do."

She groans. "God, I'm going to a mom again and a grandma all in the same year." We laugh at that.

"So is she happy?" Chris asks.

"Yeah." I nod. "I think she is. Why don't we go in and see her?"

They follow me down the hall. I go in first. She's sitting up watching TV.

"Hey Ace." I lean over and give her a kiss.

"Hey, where have you been?" She asks.

"Talking to your parents and Luke." I tell her.

"Oh! They're here?"

I nod. "Yeah, they're here. They want to come in and see you. They're right outside."

"Oh, tell them to come in."

I go open the door and let them in. I think they are all a little relieved to see that she is doing OK.

"Hun, you cut your hair again." Lorelai comments.

"Yeah, I wanted it short again. It's time for a change."

"Few changes." Her dad mentions.

Rory looks over at me and I smile. "They were there when the doctor told me your test results."

"Oh, well at least that solves how we were going to tell them."

I nod as I take a seat on the chair next to her bed.

"I know it's a surprise. It was a surprise to us too. It wasn't planned in any way but I'm really actually pretty excited about it."

I internally breathe a sigh of relief. It so good to hear her say that.

"So mom, what do you think?" Rory asks eagerly.

"Umm…I wasn't expecting to hear that news already." She admits.

"I know. We weren't either."

"Do you think you're ready for a baby?" She asks and I frown.

"Please don't do this, Lorelai." I plead. "We have spent the last 4 days going over every reason we'd be ready to have this baby. The last thing we need is anyone doubting that we can't."

"I'm not doubting that you can't, Logan." She tells me. "I'm just making sure you're prepared. Are you ready to be a dad?"

"Somewhat, not completely. We also have 8 months before the baby comes. I will be by then."

It gets quiet then. Rory and I are giving each other looks that we're clueless on what to say.

"Dad?"

Chris looks over at her. "Yeah, kiddo?"

"What do you think?"

"I think it's a shock but I am happy for you two."

Rory beams. "Thanks dad."

"Your sister's going to be thrilled."

Rory and I laugh. "I have no doubt." I tell him.

"Luke…" She looks over eagerly at him.

"I think it's great." He admits which I think shocks Lorelai. I knew she'd be a tough sell but not necessarily this tough. I need to solve this now.

"Lorelai…" I say and she looks over at me.

"Yeah?"

"Can we talk for a moment?"

"Sure."

"Be right back, Ace." I kiss her forehead.

"OK." She answers slowly. I think she's wondering what we're going to talk about.

Lorelai and I go out into the hallway and I close Rory's door so she can't hear.

"Can you tell me what it would take for you to actually be happy about the baby?"

"You two just never do anything at a slow pace, do you?" She muses.

"What part of this wasn't planned are you not getting? Lorelai, it hasn't been easy. It literally has taken all 4 days to fully believe we can do this. We're finally getting comfortable with it. I really don't want you saying anything that's going to upset her. If you're not happy about it, lie."

"I'm not that good of a liar, Logan."

"Then just be happy. Come on, Lorelai. Doesn't the idea of being a grandma sound the least bit appealing to you?"

"Well, of course it does."

"Then keep an open mind. I mean, she's 23, she's married, we're settled as far as living arrangements and work goes." I think after I point this out, she's starting to see my point. "Did the timing suck? Absolutely. I thought we'd have a couple years before we would have kids but it was a surprise and a good surprise at that. We're happy about this and I really wish you would be too, Lorelai."

I see her smile. Thank you Lord! I think I've won my mother in law over again.

"Don't worry; I'm happy."

"Do you mean that?"

She nods. "I do."

"Thank you, Lorelai."

She nods again. "Sure."

"Come on. We better get back before Rory gets worried."

I walk back into Rory's room with Lorelai trailing behind me.

"Everything OK?" Rory asks as I sit on the edge of her bed.

"Of course, Ace. Nothing to worry about."

"Mom?" She looks over at Lorelai for confirmation. It's as if she thinks I'm lying to her. Of course I probably would to keep her calm.

"Yeah, hun everything's fine." She comes around to the other side of the bed and hugs her. "I'm happy for you."

"Really? You are?" Rory's face lights up.

"I am kid. I think you'll be a great mom." She admits to her.

"Really? You think so?"

"I know so."

"I have no doubt you will, Ace." I interlace our fingers together. "After all, you have a pretty incredible role model to go off of with your mom."

Lorelai shoots me a surprised look and I grin. I don't think she expected me to say it. But honestly it is the truth.

"He's right, Lorelai." Chris adds. "You did an amazing job raising Rory."

"And you'll do a fantastic job with this kid too." Luke chimes in.

Rory smiles. "Everything I am is because of you, mom. I really don't think I would have gotten as far as I have in life without you and your support."

"Quit trying to make me cry!" Lorelai complains and we all laugh. "Oh!" She puts her hand on her stomach.

"Mom…you OK?" Rory asks.

Lorelai quickly grabs Rory's hand and puts it on her stomach. I get it now; the baby must be kicking.

Rory starts laughing. "Wow! That's incredible."

"You just wait about 4 more months if you think that's incredible. Luke, you want to try to feel the baby kicking?"

"Why bother?" Luke sighs. "The kid's going to stop as soon as I do."

"Luke, seriously, don't take it so personally." Lorelai tells him. "Rory was stubborn too."

"I was not." Rory argues.

"Yes, you were." Her dad informs her. "You didn't let me feel you kick until your mom was like 7 months along."

"Huh." Rory resigns. "Yeah, I wouldn't take it personally, Luke. Babies are apparently very picky."

I somehow don't think that what everyone is telling him is making him feel better but he tells us he's fine.

"So listen, about me being in the hospital. You can tell grandma and grandpa I'm here but I don't want them to know I'm pregnant yet."

"OK." Lorelai nods. "That's understandable. They are probably going to want to visit. How long do you have to stay in here?"

"I think a couple days but hopefully they'll release me early."

"Don't push your luck, Rory." I warn her.

"Logan…"

"If they feel you're good enough to go home tomorrow, fine but you're not going to be pressuring them to let you go early."

She sighs. "I know."

"Good." I look over at the clock and notice it's already 7. Wow! This has been a long day. Just then a nurse knocks on the door and advises that she needs to check Rory out. Her parents and Luke tell her that they need to get going. They each give her hugs and kisses and I walk them out.

I tell Lorelai that we'll call her later. I tell them goodbye and head back into Rory's room. The nurse is just finishing up.

"So how are they looking?" I ask the nurse in reference to Rory's vitals.

"Everything looks good." The nurse confirms.

"Great."

"The doctor will be in one last time to check on you."

"Thank you." We answer in unison.

I turn back to my wife and she's smiling at me. I give her a kiss. "How are you feeling?"

"Good. How are you feeling?"

"I'm OK." So that's not a total lie.

"Logan…" She gives me a knowing smile.

"I am." I insist. "But I'm kind of wiped out too."

"It's been a long day."

"Yes it has."

"Are you going to crash tonight?"

"Yes I will."

* * *

**Not the greatest ending I know but at least it's a happy one. Nothing's wrong with the baby. Oh, interesting thing. The doctor that's in New York? Yeah, he's one of my main characters I have in the real story I'm writing that's not a fan fiction. He's an OB-GYN too in that story. Columbia Presbyterian was also the hospital Logan was in but when I looked up hospitals in NY turns out it was one of the best for OB-GYN. I think...I'm pretty sure. Anyway, remember things are going to slow down now. I'm working on the next chapter and part of it is typed but it's not fully done yet. Remember to review!**


	28. Huntzberger Heart to Hearts

**Here it is; as promised I did get the chapter out. Truthfully I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to. The title has to do with both Rory/Logan and Logan/Honor. Thanks for all the reviews! I'm surprised no one mentioned what I did with the conversation on the plane in the Hell at Angel Falls chapter. I bring it up in this chapter. Also about the babies. I've already determined that Lorelai is having a boy and Rory's having a girl and neither one of them are having twins. The main reason I didn't do twins is because Lane has twins so I didn't want to do that. Please review!**

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* * *

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At seven-thirty my supper gets brought to me. It's not bad; it's edible. It's a pork chop, scalloped potatoes and green beans. Logan makes sure I eat every bite.

"Is this what the next 8 months are going to be like?" I ask as I take a drink of my water.

"Maybe; if I have to." He tells me as he eats his food. The cafeteria sent a tray up for him too.

"Logan, it's not like I've been avoiding eating. Everything I eat has made me nauseous."

"Well, we can talk to the doctor and see what he recommends."

"That's a good idea."

At eight o'clock I hear a knock on my door. I tell them to come in. I see Steph, Finn, and Colin come in. "Hey guys!" I grin at them.

"Hey Rory." Steph come over and gives me a hug.

"How are you, love?" Finn gives me a hug and a kiss.

"I'm doing OK. I'm better." I tell them as I hand Logan my tray. He puts both of them on a nearby table.

"We brought your stuff for you." Steph says.

"Oh thanks." I smile at them and then glance over at Colin. "You're awfully quiet, Colin. Any reason why?"

"Just trying to think of something to say." He tells me.

"How about 'I'm really sorry being a jackass, Rory'?" Steph suggest as her eyes narrow into a death glare.

"What she said." He tells me.

"No, you say it." Stephanie takes Colin's hand and bends his fingers all the way back.

"OK, OK. Geez, Steph." He pulls his hand away. "I'm sorry for the way I acted."

I sit up a little straighter. "You know, Colin, that actually hurt. I know how important the group is to all of you but the fact that you thought I'd waste $100 grand on a trip and never follow through, that really shocked me and not in a good way. I didn't deserve that." I inform him.

He nods. "You're right; I'm sorry."

"Thank you; apology accepted."

We share a smile and then Logan chimes in. "Oh, about the money, Ace…"

I frown. "What about it?"

He shakes his head. "Oh it's nothing bad, I promise. I was just going to say I only spent about $25,000 of it."

My eyes grow wide. "Where's the rest of the money then?"

"In a bank account. Now of course we have something we could spend the rest of the money on."

"That's right; baby furniture. Gran did say to do something daring with it."

"Well, having a baby would certainly qualify for that."

"So are you excited that you're going to be a mom?" Steph asks me.

"I am." I grin. "It's taken a little time to adjust but yeah I think it'll be great. Listen, I am sorry for the way things came out."

"Don't worry about it." Steph says.

"Yeah, it's fine." Colin nods.

"And actually bravo darling." Finn grins.

My eyebrows furrow. "What do you mean?"

Finn looks over at Colin. "What was she up to? 12? 13?"

"Actually it was 14." Steph chimes in.

"What are you talking about?" Logan looks confused.

My eyes light up. "I know it was surprising wasn't it? It didn't take as much effort as I thought it would."

"What?" Logan asks.

"Apparently Logan wasn't paying attention to the conversation we had on the plane." I inform them.

"Didn't you notice anything at all about the way she was talking?" Steph asks.

"No, not really."

Finn groans. "Think about it for a minute."

He does and then realizes what we're talking about "Ahh...OK. The letter E thing. I'm with you now."

"She went 14 sentences without using the letter E. Bravo, Gilmore." Colin comments and I frown.

"Colin, whose wedding were you at last week? It's Huntzberger now. Get it right."

Logan starts laughing and Steph and Finn join in.

"My apologies." Colin grins. "Force of habit."

"I know." I smile then look over at Logan. He's just beaming ear to ear. "What?"

"Nothing. It's just the first time I've ever hear you vocally refer to yourself as a Huntzberger."

I give him a knowing smile. That's true; I don't think I've ever said it out loud. "Like the sound of that?"

"I love the sound of that."

"They're going to start getting sappy on us." Finn groans.

"I think it's time for us to go anyway. God, it's been the longest day." Steph remarks and Logan and I nod.

"Yeah, it really has." I tell them.

"Yeah, we better go. We'll stop back and see you tomorrow." Colin says as he gets up.

"OK sounds good."

"I'm going to go walk them out." Logan tells me as he kisses me forehead. "Be right back."

I nod as I start flipping through the channels on the TV. Logan comes back in a couple minutes later. "How are you doing?" He asks as he sits back down.

"I'm doing OK. Better than this morning." I admit.

"That's good to hear."

"I mean, I can even feel a difference Logan."

"Well, I'm sure the fact that your fluid intake and the electrolytes have been brought back up to normal are what's causing that." He gets very somber then.

"What?" I frown.

"Changes need to be made, Rory."

I nod. "I know."

"Knowing it and doing it are two different things, Rory."

"I know Logan." I stress to him.

"I'm serious here. Which leads me to the next topic."

"Which is?" I raise an eyebrow.

"Work."

"What about it?"

"I don't want you to be entirely shocked when I end up watching you like a hawk when you get there."

"You really think that's going to be necessary?"

"Yes, I do." He states. "That's my kid you're carrying and I will do everything in my power to ensure we don't end up here again."

I know he's serious. I don't want to be here again either. At least not for a good 8 months. He then continues.

"If things get too stressful, I will send you home." He tells me and my mouth gapes open.

"Logan…"

"I'm not joking, Rory. If I have to, I will."

"You're going to make me regret taking the job, aren't you?" I grumble.

"Why are you looking at it like that?" He scowls. "I'm exercising my concern over both of you. Rory, do you have any idea how scared I was seeing you lying there?"

"Yes, I know Logan. It had to be really scary for you. I'm sorry that you had to even be in that position. I know why you're feeling the way you are. I promise I'm not going to do anything that would be putting our lives in jeopardy, OK?"

He smiles. "Thank you. Just remember what I said. If I have to, I will send you home."

"Yeah I know."

* * *

Rory didn't fall asleep until almost 1 this morning. She had slept so much yesterday that it took her that long to wind down enough to fall asleep. Me? I only slept a couple hours. Partially because of the small lumpy couch I slept on but mainly because I had a lot on my mind.

I check my watch; it's only 6:30. I then look over at Rory who appears to be sleeping peacefully. I find some clothes and change in the bathroom. I write Rory a note telling her I'll be back after a little while.

I hail a cab and head to Honor's brownstone. She's probably going to kill me for waking her up. Especially since it's a Sunday but I'm hoping when she finds out why I'm there she'll take pity on me.

By the time I arrive it's about quarter after 7. I actually have to ring her doorbell a couple times before she answers. She still looks half asleep and her hair is a little in disarray.

"Logan…" She mumbles as she moves away from the door to let me in. "You're disrupting my beauty sleep."

"I know." I tell her apologetically. "I'm sorry but I really need to talk to someone and you're the first person I thought of."

She leads me into the kitchen. She and Josh have a nice, spacious house that's located on the Upper West Side. They've lived there since about 4 months before they got married.

"Do you want some coffee? She asks and I nod.

"Yeah, that would be great, thanks."

She makes the coffee and brings me a cup and pours herself one too. "So what's going on?" She asks as she sits down next to me at the table. "Wait, aren't you supposed to be at your Life and Death Brigade stunt?"

I slowly nod. "That got shot to hell though." I tell her as I sip my coffee.

Honor pulls her robe closer together as she leans across the table. "Logan…what's going on?"

"Rory's in the hospital for severe dehydration." I tell her quietly.

"Oh my god!" She gasps. "Is she going to be OK?"

I nod. "Yeah, she'll be fine. But I'll tell you Honor I have never been so scared in my whole life."

"I'm sure you were." She grabs my hand and gives it a squeeze. "What can I do, Logan? In what way can I help out?"

"Well, there is something."

"Sure. Anything."

"I called the airlines and the soonest we can get a direct flight back to San Francisco is 6:30 Tuesday morning. Rory's not going to be released until tomorrow unless anything would happen to make her stay longer."

"Like what?"

"Nothing."

"Logan…" Her eyes narrow in curiosity. "There's something that you're not telling me."

I sigh then nod. "Yeah, you're right. There is."

"What else is going on?"

I take in a huge breath and slowly exhale. "While we were on our honeymoon, we found out that Rory's pregnant."

Honor's eyes grow wide. "Really? She is? That's great." She leans over and gives me a hug. "Congratulations."

"Thanks." I crack a smile.

"Oh my god! I'm going to be an aunt!" She squeals.

"Honor…"

She look at my expression and frowns. "You're not happy." She realizes. "Why aren't you happy?"

"I am." I tell her.

"You could have fooled me." She retorts.

"No I am." I protest as I drink my coffee. "I'm just scared."

"Of what? The responsibility?"

"Partially but there's something that's bigger that's worrying me."

"Like what?"

I get up and start to pace. "What if I turn out like him, Honor?"

"Like who? Dad? Logan, you will never be like dad."

"How can you be so sure?" This has been on my mind even before we discovered that Rory was pregnant. It always left me with an apprehensive feeling.

"Because you have a soul, Logan." She exclaims. "Because you actually care about people and their feelings. And finally because you are so deeply in love with your wife. Dad doesn't have any of those things. He only cares about himself. I promise you Logan. You are nothing like him."

I smile at her. She's giving me hope here.

"You're going to be an amazing father, Logan." She smiles. "That I'm sure of." She gets up and gives me a hug.

"Thank you Honor."

"You're welcome." She tells me as we sit back down at the table. "Oh, another thing that I'm sure of?"

"Yeah?"

"You're going to have the most spoiled kid in San Francisco." She predicts and I laugh.

"Yeah, we probably will."

"Is Rory happy?"

"Yeah, she is." I nod.

"You're not sounding 100% certain about that." She concludes as she sips her coffee.

"No she is but it's taken the last few days for her to get there. You know we didn't plan this and it kind of threw us for a loop."

"Have you told her what's worrying you?"

I look at her like she's crazy. "What? Of course I haven't told her. The last thing I need is that adding stress to her."

"Logan, she's your wife. You need to tell her. I honestly believe she can calm your fears just as well as I can."

"You had a front row seat through the nightmare of our childhood." I try to ration.

"Yeah, I did but don't sell Rory short. She can calm your fears. And I'm sure you'll be able to calm hers. You're married now, Logan. You can't keep this a secret."

My mind flashes back to 5 days ago…

"_Ace I'm your husband. We can't keep big things like this from each other."_

How much of a hypocrite would I be if I kept this a secret? Yeah, I know. Pretty big. Honor's right; I need to talk to Rory.

"Logan?" My sister starts to wave her hand in front of my face. "Loge…gan."

"Yeah?" I come out of my funk and gaze over at her.

"Are you OK?"

"Yeah, I was just thinking and you're right. I should talk to Rory about this."

"Good." She smiles. "Want me to tell you a secret?"

"Sure."

"You can't tell this to anyone other than Rory. If you do, I will deny it."

"O…kay." So this piques my curiosity.

"I really envy you and Rory."

I look at her confused. "What do you mean?"

"Logan, you and Rory…you two have a love that I used to think was a myth. I have never seen anyone in love like the two of you. I've never **been** in love with anyone like the two of you are with each other."

What? Now that shocks the hell out of me. "What are you saying? You don't love Josh?"

Honor quickly shakes her head as she gets up to get the coffee pot and fills the cups up. "No, of course I love him. I love him with my whole heart." She tells me. "But we don't have the kind of love that you two have. You two honestly make everyone else jealous."

I grin. "You really think so?"

She laughs. "Are you kidding? I spent a good portion of the time at the reception talking with the relatives about how cute the two of you are and how in love you are. Mom, dad and grandpa got an earful about it too."

I start laughing. OK so she's now made my morning.

"Speaking of them, when are you going to tell them?"

"Not until she's out of her 1st trimester." I tell her adamantly. There's not going to be any wiggle room on this. "The only people who are going to know before that already know."

"So who knows right now?"

"You. You can tell Josh, though. I wouldn't expect you to keep this from him. Anyway, you and Josh, Lorelai, Luke, and Chris, and oh the LDB members."

"You told them?" Her eyes grow wide.

I shrug. "Yeah we kind of had to. Because of the stunt she couldn't do it and then Colin wanted to know why. Actually we were at the stunt when she collapsed."

Honor's face is registering shock. "Oh my god! She collapsed during it? Where did you go?"

"Venezuela. We were going to BASE jump off of Angel Falls." I take a drink of my coffee. "She collapsed after she saw blood. We thought she was having a miscarriage."

"Oh, god Logan." She whispers. "You had to have been terrified."

"I was." I admit as I nod. "Anyway, that's why we're going to wait, probably until Christmas, to tell anyone else. That's going to be close to when the 1st trimester should be ending. My main goal during this pregnancy is to eliminate her stress."

"Yeah, good luck with that." She smirks as she drinks her coffee.

"What?"

"Logan, you're not going to be able to eliminate her stress completely. She's going to have stress. It's unavoidable. You just need to find a way to keep it at a minimum."

"I already have that down at work."

"So what's going to be the way you handle it?"

"What do you think? I'll send her home."

"Not a bad idea as long as you don't do it all the time. You make it a habit and her stress won't be from the job; it'll be from you."

Listen to her; my sister, the shrink. She makes a lot of sense though. "If you make her feel like she can't do her job or are watching her every move, she's going feel like you're smothering her and let me tell you, Logan, your marriage will be over so fast, your head will spin."

"Don't you think you're exaggerating just a little?" I ask as I finish off my coffee.

"Do you want to try your luck and see?" She raises an eyebrow.

No, honestly, I don't. I'm not the gambling type it comes to these 2 things. We'll just have to figure out how to balance everything. We'll find a way to make it all work. My phone starts to ring then. I look at the time on the display on my phone. It's 8:30 already.

"It's Rory." I tell her. "Hey Ace." I answer on the 3rd ring.

"Hey, where are you?"

"I'm at Honor's house. I'm just getting ready to leave. Are you OK?"

"Yeah, fine. I just got worried when I woke up and you weren't here."

"I left you a note."

"A vague note."

"Well, I wasn't sure where I was going." I explain. "I'm getting set to leave here though. I should be back at the hospital in around half an hour, OK?"

"Yeah, OK. I'll see you soon. I love you."

I smile. "Love you too, Ace. See you soon." I hang up and glance over at my sister. "I should get going." I tell her. "Are you going to come see her?"

"Yeah, I'll be by later. You know, after I get some more sleep."

I laugh as I get up. "OK sounds good. I should get going."

She gets up and we hug. "See you later. Oh by the way, the answer's yes."

"What do you mean 'the answer's yes'?"

"You guys can stay here tomorrow night. You never got around to asking it but I figured that's where you were going."

I smile. She knows me so well that I didn't even have to ask. "Thanks Honor."

"You're welcome. You better get going."

"I should. Bye."

"Bye."

I leave and make it back to the hospital at just after 9. I get to Rory's room and find she's not alone.

"Hello Logan."

"Hello Richard, Emily." I paste on a smile. Great, this should be interesting…

* * *

I was really hoping that Logan would have been back before my grandparents got here. I told them that he was at his sister's house but my grandma found it absolutely appalling that he would just up and leave in the middle of the night. Well, it wasn't in the middle of the night. I know that. I woke up at 4 and he was still sleeping on the couch. He had me worrying though when I saw he was gone when I woke up at 8. I gave him an extra half hour but when he didn't show up, I figured it was time to see where he was. It doesn't surprise me that he was with Honor but why he had to leave so early, I'm curious about.

"Hello, Richard, Emily." Logan greets them politely.

"Where have you been, Logan?" My grandma says in an accusing tone which causes me to roll my eyes. Logan frowns.

"Grandma, I told you. Logan was with Honor." I tell her calmly.

"Why did you have to go so early?" She asks.

"Oh she called me about 6 this morning. She's having issues with her husband. They had this huge blow out fight last night and he never came home. I went over there to calm her down."

OK, so I know that's a lie. I would have heard his phone ring had it been true. I'm not going to question him about it while they're here though.

"Is everything OK now?" Grandpa asks.

"Yeah, she's doing better. He still wasn't back when I left but I called him and he was on his way home to work out their problems. He had had a few drinks and then crashed at his office last night, I guess."

Wow! He's really good at lying. He better not to me though.

"Well, I just hope everything turns out OK for them." I tell him.

"Yeah, I think it will. They just need to talk their problems out."

My grandparents stay for probably an hour. For the most part, it's a very cordial conversation. They did question how I wound up in the hospital but I explained to them that I had a really bad case of food poisoning and had gotten super dehydrated. I did tell them that I passed out at the stunt. They did believe this luckily.

I can't tell them about the pregnancy yet. Let me rephrase. I **won't** tell them about the pregnancy yet. I don't want anyone else to know just yet. The last few days have been the scariest I've ever had. Right now, we're just going to be taking things one day at a time.

My grandparents leave at 10; right when the doctor makes a visit. I tell them I will talk to them tomorrow after I get released. After the doctor leaves, Logan comes back in. He walked my grandparents out and was talking to them while the doctor was talking to me.

Logan comes back in and sits on my bed. "I didn't even get a chance to do this yet this morning." He leans in and gives me a kiss. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm doing better now that you're back."

He frowns. "Were you worried?"

I shrug. "A little. I know that story about Honor is a lie because I would have heard your phone ring and it never did."

"I had to think on my feet." He explains. "I really didn't expect her to be here, let alone giving me a 3rd degree, you know?"

"Yeah, I know." I nod. "What's going on, Logan? It has to be something that caused you to get up at the crack of dawn."

"Is it that obvious?" He asks.

"Well, yeah that and also the fact that your sister said you have something to tell me." I give a small smile. "She refused to tell me what it was, though. She said you had to tell me."

"That was really nice of her." He grumbles.

"Logan, tell me what's on your mind."

"I'm just…I guess I'm worrying about being a dad."

"OK." That's a given considering this came out of left field. "I understand. What's worrying you about it?"

"Ace, I'm so glad that you're pregnant but the thing is, I'm worried that I'm going to turn out just like my dad."

"Oh, Logan. I'm not worried about that at all. You're going to be a great father. You're nothing like your dad." Thank God for that.

"Yeah, that's what Honor told me too." He nods.

"Well, she's right. So that's what you talked about?"

He slowly nods. "Yeah. I needed her to confirm for me that I wouldn't be anything like him."

"Well, you won't be." I conclude. "So why didn't you just tell me?"

"I didn't want it adding any stress for you."

I smile. "It didn't. Logan, this is a two way street. I need you tell me if something's bothering you. Don't keep me out of the loop here. If you do, that's what is going to shoot my stress level up. I'll spend all my time wondering and worrying."

"OK." He nods. "I promise."

I grin as I kiss him. "I love you."

"I love you too Ace."

"So what did Honor think about the baby?"

He breaks out into a huge grin. "Oh, she's ecstatic to be an aunt."

"That's great."

"She's letting us stay with them tomorrow night. I couldn't get a flight until 6:30 Tuesday morning."

"Well, that's sweet of her." I tell him. I had thought about seeing if we could stay in Stars Hollow tomorrow night but since the flight's so early I wouldn't want to get up any earlier than I have to. Honor's brownstone isn't too far from the airport. Maybe I can get mom to come to New York and we can do some shopping or something. We'll be back in Connecticut soon enough I'm sure but right now, I honestly just want to get home. I'm starting to miss my bed.

"How was your morning?" He asks me.

"It was good. My grandma and grandpa showed up at quarter to 9. They were told that visiting hours didn't start until 9 but you know how my grandma can be." I tell him.

"Oh, yeah, I know." He's got the goofiest smile on his face right now.

"What?" I ask.

"Want to hear something surprising?"

"As long as it's a good surprise."

"Oh, it is. Honor was telling me how she's jealous of us."

My eyes grow wide. "She's jealous of us?" I repeat blankly. "Why?"

"Because she's never known anyone that's been in love like us. She was including herself in this too."

"Wow!" I exclaim."Yeah, that's shocking to hear. She doesn't love Josh?" I look at him confused.

"No, she does but I guess it's different than the type of love we have."

I stare at him confused and he grins. "I know. It wasn't making any sense to me either but according to her, everybody's jealous of us."

Well, that's interesting to hear. "I wonder what it is about us that make them all feel that way."

"Not sure." He shrugs. "But I do know that there's going to be another thing that's going to make them all jealous."

"What's that?"

"The fact that we're going to be fabulous parents."

"That we are." I lean forward and kiss him.

* * *

** I figured it was time for Honor to find out. OK, so here's what I'm thinking for the future for this story. I'd say there's going to probably be at least 6 more chapters. Big things that will happen are of course the birth of their baby, Lorelai's baby, and also is going to be the next chapter and Logan's parents are going to find out that she's pregnant. Now I really really really want reviews here because I want you to let me know how you think it should go. Are they going to be happy? Mad? The overall consensus will determine how I write it. Anyway, remember to review! You're the best reviewers :D**


	29. Bittersweet Christmas

**OK so I wasn't sure how I wanted to end this chapter and the title pretty much speaks for itself. I was actually tearing up when I wrote the ending for the chapter. I did however have a little fun with the chapter and the Huntzberger's Christmas Party. We never really knew about much about Logan's aunts and uncles only that Mitchum was 2 of 4 kids. I had to make one of his aunts closer to his age. Please please review! Love to read them! Next chapter will be Gilmore Christmas Party and the following chapter will be Rory at work and also Lorelai having her baby. Need ideas for names for Rory's brother :D Anyway, read and review!**

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I'm standing in front of my mirror in my room in Stars Hollow. I'm examining the dress I'm wearing from all angles. It's a deep crimson silk dress with ruffles. Logan is changing into his suit and watching me twirl around in front of the mirror.

"What are you doing?" He asks as he pulls me to him and wraps his arms around my waist from behind.

I pull away from him and turn around to face him. "Do I look pregnant in this?"

"You are pregnant, Rory." He points out as he finishes tying his crimson tie. We don't normally dress to match but with it being Christmas and all we thought it would be festive.

"But your parents don't know that, Logan." I remind him and ask him again. "So do I look pregnant in this?"

He grins as he pulls me to him again. "No, you don't look pregnant. You do, however, look beautiful." He leans down and kisses me.

"Thank you." I blush. "You look very handsome yourself."

"Well, thank you. So are you ready for us to tell them?"

I shrug. "We have to tell them sometime. Want to make a bet on how they're going to take the news?"

Logan shakes his head. "Nope, mainly because I think we're thinking the same thing."

I sigh. "I really hope this doesn't go bad, Logan."

"I know. Me too. I mean, I'd love to believe it's going to go great, Ace but we both know better."

I nod. "Oh yeah, we know better."

"You know, they're going to think we did this on purpose, right?" He tells me quietly.

"You mean in order to break the prenup? Yeah, I'm sure they will. It was super fast that it happened already."

"Sure you don't want to skip it?"

I laugh. "Of course I do but we can't run away forever."

"We can try."

"Don't tempt me."

Mom told me that she has no plans tonight so she is letting us take her Jeep. It should be interesting arriving at the Huntzbergers in her Jeep. I'm not superficial enough that it matter to me what vehicle we show up in but the Huntzbergers are. Remember the comment Shira made about the house we rented?

Christmas is still 3 days away and Logan has next week off. He's pretty lucky with his job. We have Logan's parents' Christmas party tonight and my grandparents' party is tomorrow night. None of them were informed about the pregnancy. We did, however, include it in the Christmas card along with our wedding picture. We're hand delivering some of the cards for this reason.

We arrive at Logan's parents' house at 7:30. There are already 20 cars parked in and around their driveway. I get out of the Jeep and pull my wool coat closer together. God, it's so cold out! There's a definite chill in the air; well, then again we are at Logan's parents' house. Right now it's hard to tell if it's due to the weather or just the fact that we're here.

"You OK?" Logan asks me.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I tell him as we head for the door. I thread our fingers together. "Do you think we need a signal?"

"How about if you just give me one of those looks you give me like when you're going to die from boredom?"

I start laughing. "Do I give you this look often?"

"Umm…it's not frequent but over the last 4 years I've seen it several times. Of course the last time was at your graduation party at your grandparents' house. You were surrounded by the DAR ladies."

My eyes light up. "Oh, right."

We get to the door and we stand there for a moment before we ring the doorbell. He looks over at me and grins. "You look gorgeous."

I blush. "You already told me that Logan but thank you."

He leans down and kisses me and his hand goes to rest on my coat clad stomach.

"Stop it." I whisper as I take his hand off it.

"What? Kissing you? Never." He declares as he kisses me again and again puts his hand on my stomach.

"Logan, stop putting your hand on my stomach."

"Why?"

"When did you ever do that when I wasn't pregnant? That's right; you didn't. It's a little obvious." I point out.

"No, if we're going for obvious I would be kissing your stomach."

That's a good point. He's only recently started to do that and the only time he does it is when we're in our bedroom. But then he's not only kissing my stomach, he talks to it too. It. We're still debating whether or not we want to know the sex of the baby. I'd like to know but then again there's something to be said about being surprised. We still have a little time before the time comes when we would be able to know.

"Ready?" I ask him.

"As ready as I'll ever be."

I ring the doorbell and a few moments later, the butler opens the door for us and takes our coats. Logan escorts me into the parlor room. Everyone is scattered about the room and it takes us a minute to even locate Honor.

"Nice shade of lipstick, Logan." She teases him. "I think I have the same color."

"Ha, ha, Honor." He smirks. "Ace, did you want club soda, water, or Coke?" He heads to the bar.

"Water's fine." I tell him.

"So how are you?" She whispers.

"I'm doing OK. **We're** doing OK." I tell her in a low voice. "Everything is going good so far."

"That's great."

"Yes, it is." I nod. "Especially given how things were in the beginning."

"I'm sure."

Logan returns with my water and a scotch for himself. I thank him and take a sip of my water.

"So what are you talking about?" He asks as he takes a drink of his scotch.

"The baby." I tell him.

"Baby?" I turn around and see Shira standing there. "What baby?"

"Hello Shira. My new little brother or sister, actually." I'm not going to tell her 5 minutes after walking in the door. "My mom's due in the middle of February."

"Oh, that's wonderful." She tells me. Even after all this time, I still can't tell when the woman is serious or not. She then greets her children politely. Not warmly; politely. We very cordially chat for a few moments and then she excuses herself.

"Good thing your mom's pregnant right now." Logan says.

"Yeah, no kidding."

"When are you going to tell them?" Honor asks as she takes a drink of her martini.

"Well, tonight but we're going to tell them when they are together." I inform her as I sip my water.

"When do you start your job?" She asks.

"January 7th." I tell her. "I just got done with interviews and hiring my staff last week."

"That's great. How many people did you hire?"

"Twenty five. " I take a drink of my water. "Thirteen men and 12 women. Let me tell you it was rewarding but it was also tiring."

"Didn't you help her?" Honor frowns at Logan.

"Of course I did." He tells her.

"Yeah, he did." I quickly assure her. "He had to; we had over 150 people come in and interview."

Her mouth drops open. "Oh my god! Are you serious?"

Logan nods. "Oh yeah me, Rory, and my boss Scott spent the first week doing back to back interviews. We had cut from 150 to 50. Then the last week and a half Rory did the last round of them. That's where the final cut was done from 50 down to 25."

"Wow! That does sound tiring."

"It was. Logan was trying to help with that too but I reminded him that I didn't get to help him pick out his staff."

"Very true." Honor nods.

"Hello Rory, Logan, Honor." Logan's dad now makes his appearance.

"Dad." Honor and Logan answer in unison.

"Hello, Mitchum." I politely smile at him.

"How is everyone?"

"Good." We all seem to reply in unison.

"How was your flight?" He asks.

"Good." I tell him.

"Uneventful." Logan adds.

"That's the best kind." I inform my husband.

He nods. "Especially since it's winter."

"No kidding." I smile.

"So have you been mingling?" Mitchum asks and Logan responds. "We haven't gotten a chance to yet. We will in just a minute."

Mitchum nods and leaves and I glance around the room. I do recognize a good majority of the people; most of them are Logan's relatives. His dad has 2 sisters and a brother and his mom has 3 sisters and 3 brothers. Huge family. Trying to keep Shira's family straight has been a bit of a challenge. Well, except for Shira's youngest sister, Maya. I can remember her because she's only 6 years older than Logan. Shira's mom was well into her 40's when she had her.

We meet up with Maya a few minutes later after Honor excused herself to find Josh. "Oh thank god you're here." Maya exclaims as she comes running up to us. "I was worried you wouldn't be."

"Why?" Logan asks then takes a drink of his scotch. "What's going on?"

"Nothing. I'm just bored out of my goddamn mind." She admits. "Besides you always make these parties entertaining."

We laugh.

"What do you have planned for tonight?" Maya asks eagerly.

Logan and I exchange amusing looks and I respond with: "You'll just have to wait and see."

"Oh Rory!" She exclaims again. "I had been meaning to talk to you."

"Really? About what?"

"I just wanted to tell you how much I loved your wedding dress. It was absolutely gorgeous."

"Oh." I answer, surprised. "Thank you. That's sweet of you to say."

"Who designed it?"

"Maggie Sottero. It was the 6th wedding dress I tried on. I got it at this cute little wedding boutique in Manhattan."

"Any reason you're curious, Maya?" Logan raises an eyebrow.

"No, not really."

"Are you and Ben finally engaged?" He asks her. Ben has been Maya's boyfriend on and off for the last 5 years according to Logan.

"Ben? Ben who?" She huffs and Logan sighs.

"What happened?"

"Does it matter?" She grumbles.

"Of course it does." I tell her. "What happened?"

"Nothing. He's just a jerk. He tells me we're serious and then I find him kissing this other chick. So I confront him and he says he wants to date me but not exclusively."

"Well, that's slightly reminiscent of someone I used to know." My gaze drifts over to my husband.

"Hey, hey." He starts to argue. "You know we were different than that. I was completely upfront about my dating life."

"That's true. You were." I agree. "Look, Maya, you can't change him. If there's one thing I've learned from how my relationship with Logan started it was that. He has to want to change. Now, for Logan, that took the prospect of me walking away from him."

"It was a real eye opener." He admits to her as he polishes off his scotch. "No one had done it before."

"Your ego won't admit to it but I'm sure there are ones who have." I inform him. "Are you going to do the casual dating thing?"

Maya shrugs. "I don't know. I haven't done that since my late teens or early 20's. I think I'm too old to do casual dating."

Logan and I laugh at this. "Maya, you're still in your early 30's. Why couldn't you?" Logan asks.

"I guess I could. I'm just not sure I want to."

"Well, you're going to want to debate whether or not you want to or if you just want to walk away. If you do that though and he walks away, it's probably for the best. I will tell you that I found out pretty quickly that I wasn't suited for the casual dating scene. As soon as I saw Logan with another girl…"

He cuts me off and smirks. "You mean Megan?"

I groan. "I don't care what her name was, Logan." I inform him and he laughs.

"My Ace…" He kisses my forehead. "Still jealous after all these years."

"Maybe I was but you're prone to jealousy too." I remind him. "Of course if you're going to do the casual thing, I'd say the one pro to it is that you get to make him jealous, especially if you choose to go out with one of his friends."

Maya laughs. "So who did you pick?"

"Robert."

"Robert?" She raises an eyebrow. "You mean his frenemy Robert? The one he's in the Life and Death Brigade with?"

I nod. "Yep, that's him."

"Wait, how do you know Robert?" Logan stares at his aunt suspiciously.

"I've known him since you were at Yale, Logan." She reveals. "In fact, I caught up with him at your wedding."

I think Logan's speechless based on his expression.

"Maya!" I hear a high pitched sing-song voice and I hear Maya groan.

"Why must your mother talk in that annoying voice when she calls me?" Maya grumbles. "I'll be back."

Maya leaves to head over to the group of people that Shira's with. I turn to Logan and he still looks genuinely concerned.

"What is it, Logan?"

"I just have the creepiest feeling that Robert slept with my aunt."

"So what? They're both adults." I remind him.

"That just creeps me out." He admits.

"More than if I would have slept with him?" I ask him bluntly.

"No, that would have been about 10 times worse."

"Yeah, I figured that you would say that." I smirk. I never would have slept with Robert, though. He's a pretty nice guy but it really was for jealousy purposes that we even got together.

He grins at me as he wraps his arms around my waist. "How are you doing? Are you doing OK?"

I nod. "Yeah, so far, so good."

"Good." He leans down and kisses me. Once again, he puts his right hand on my stomach which I quickly remove.

"I have told you more than once not to do that." I remind him sternly in a quiet voice.

"Rory, they're all going to find out soon enough. Relax."

"Logan! Rory!" We turn and see Mitchum's sister Olivia call to us and wav us to come over.

"Ready?" Logan asks as he threads our fingers together.

"Lead the way." I tell him.

We greet Mitchum's side of the family. His two sisters and their husbands and his brother with his wife and of course Mitchum and Shira.

"So how's work?" His aunt Grace asks him.

"Good. Everything's good. Rory's going to start her job in about 2 ½ weeks as the editor in chief of the online magazine."

"Are you liking California?" Olivia's husband Dan asks.

"Overall it's been good. What do you think, Ace? Have we adjusted to the California way of living?"

"Oh yeah." I nod as I take a drink of my warm water now that the ice has melted. "Everything's great. Work's going to be good, our condo is awesome…"

"Our condo's fabulous." Logan concurs.

"Where are you living?" His uncle Griffin asks. "What area?"

"The Russian Hill area." I tell him.

"That's an incredible area." His uncle nods. "I lived in San Francisco for a number of years before I came back to New York."

"We love the area." I tell everyone. "It's a little bit of a drive to work but that was really the only downfall."

We give them the highlights that we have found out from living in San Francisco. All of them appear to be enamored. Honor and Josh soon join the conversation and the next topic we cover is Christmas and what other plans we have.

About 20 minutes later, Logan has gotten himself another scotch and got me another water.

"So what are you drinking tonight, Rory?" Logan's aunt Olivia asks me.

"Oh, just water." I admit. "I'm not much of a drinker."

"Oh, I thought it was maybe because you were pregnant."

I nervously laugh at my husband.

"Have you two talked about having kids?" His aunt Grace asks.

"Oh, yeah. We have." Logan tells them.

"Any time soon?" Griffin asks.

"Yeah, actually the middle of June."

Everyone breaks out in squeals of delight and Maya rushes over. "OK, you just made this party entertaining. What did you do?"

"I just told them that Rory's pregnant." Logan admits.

Maya then squeals and gives both of us big hugs. "Oh my god, congratulations you guys! That's amazing news."

"Logan…" I tell him in a hush voice.

"What?" He frowns. "We were going to tell them tonight." He reminds me.

"Yeah, we were but I figured we would tell your parents privately first." I whisper to him. "I was trying to avoid having them look like this."

Mitchum and Shira look stunned to say the least. Everyone else appears to be excited and happy for us. Logan whispers in my ear. "They were going to look like that regardless of if we told them in public or in private. They're not going to start lodging complaints in public. It wouldn't be polite."

"Excuse me…" I announce to everyone. "I'm going to get something stronger to drink." I head towards the bar.

"Rory…" Logan calls after me.

"Sugar, Logan." I turn around and call back. "I need something with sugar. I'm not an idiot. Of course I didn't mean alcohol."

I head over to the bartender and tell him I want a Shirley Temple and to go heavy on the grenadine. I now need a sugar fix. God only knows what his parents are going to say. Logan comes over to me a couple minutes later after I have downed half of my drink.

"Are you trying to make my stress level skyrocket?" I glare at him. "Because you are."

"Rory…" He starts.

"Logan, you really had no intention of telling them in private, did you?"

"Hell no I didn't." He admits. "I figure this way it'll get set in their heads and give them time to adjust to the news."

I take another drink. "This is really good." I turn around to the bartender. "Can I get another one and could you make it the same way too?"

"Absolutely." The bartender smiles at me while my husband frowns.

"What the hell are you drinking?"

"Shirley Temple. Why?" I ask as I take another drink of it.

"That's awfully dark for a Shirley Temple." He concludes and I groan.

"Then watch him as he makes it if you don't believe me."

And so he does. Good God, he's acting like I'm trying to poison the baby or something. Although I'm sure that huge amounts of sugar are not good for it.

"Jesus Rory! Why the hell is there so much grenadine in it?"

"Because I requested it that way." I polish off the first one as the bartender hands me the 2nd one. "Thank you." I tell him as I head to the rest of the crowd. Logan is trailing behind me.

I catch up to where Honor and Josh are. They seem to have separated themselves from the group. "What happened?"

"Well, mom asked what I thought of the news and I told her I was happy and thrilled at the idea of being an aunt. She asked why I wasn't showing it and I told her I've known since the beginning of November. She stomped away from me."

"I bet she loved that." I say.

"Yeah. She'll get over it, though." Honor tells me.

I somehow don't foresee that happening tonight. I glance over at Logan who is talking to Josh about sports. I whisper to Honor asking where the bathroom is. She directs me as to where to go which is right around the corner. I just need a minute by myself. I'm OK but I can't get that look out of my head. The one that I saw flash across his parents' faces. After I take a few deeps breaths, I open the door and gasp. Yeah, Logan's mother is standing right there. And the look on her face is less than pleased.

* * *

I'm looking around for my wife and I can't seem to find her. She disappeared on me. I know she wasn't happy with how I told my parents but I honestly thought it would be easier doing it the way I did it. Maybe I was wrong.

"Honor, where did Rory go?" I ask her.

"Bathroom."

She's been gone a long time. I have the creepiest feeling right now. And my suspicions are confirmed when I can't find my mother.

"I have a really bad feeling, Honor." I admit.

"Why?"

"Mom's disappeared."

Her face turns worrisome. "Come on. We better go find Rory."

It didn't take long. Right before we hit the doorway I hear from the hallway them yelling at each other. Honor and I rush out into the foyer.

"What the hell is going on?" I demand.

"Nothing. Your mother and I are just having a discussion about why we didn't tell them sooner about the baby."

"Because we had our reasons." I tell my mom coldly. "Why does it matter?"

"I'm just curious why your sister has known for almost 2 months and you just inform us now. Why were we the last to know?"

"You're not the last to know. Richard and Emily don't know yet; they'll find out tomorrow."

"I still don't think that's fair. Especially since you decided to make that announcement in front of everyone. You should have informed us before everyone else."

I groan. "Honor…" I turn to my sister. "Take Rory upstairs to my bedroom."

"Logan…" Rory starts to protest.

"Don't argue, Ace. You remember what the doctor said. I can tell you were getting worked up." I give her a quick kiss. "Go upstairs with Honor. I'll be up in a little bit here."

She reluctantly follows my sister upstairs.

I turn to my mom after I see that Rory and Honor have rounded the corner. "What the hell is wrong with you?" I demand. "Quit being mean to my wife!"

"She was pregnant when you got engaged, wasn't she? That's why you demanded all the changes in the prenup, wasn't it?"

"One, I demanded all the changes in the prenup because it was a joke. She deserved better than what that stupid thing said. Two, have you forgotten how to do math? Rory and I got engaged in May, the baby is not due until the middle of next June so unless the term is now 13 months, not 9 for a woman to have a baby she was not pregnant. " I tell her loudly.

"What is going on here?" My dad comes out of the party. This is just perfect.

"We're having a talk about the baby." I inform him. "So what is your opinion?"

"Why don't we all go into my office?"

"Yeah, why don't we?" I follow him in and my mother's behind me.

He closes the door and takes a seat and so does my mom. I however remain standing and pace.

"Logan, sit down." My dad says.

"No thank you. Why don't you just tell me what you're thinking."

"Well, I'm shocked and appalled at the way you handled things."

"What did you want me to do? Lie?"

"No but you could have at least given us the courtesy of telling us first instead of announcing it in front of everyone."

"You're right; maybe I should have but maybe I thought if you found out in a group that it would prevent us from having this conversation. Apparently I was wrong."

"Yes, you were." My dad tells me bluntly. "How did this happen?"

"We had that talk when I was 10 years old." I retort. "It happened the way all babies are conceived naturally."

"Logan…"

"What do you want me to say, dad? It was a birth control slipup. Rory warned me about the potential of it and I didn't take it seriously enough."

"Well, that was very stupid of you." He reveals. "Why don't you ever think before you go and decide to make a mistake like this?"

My eyes are set ablaze now. "My baby may be a lot of things but it's most certainly not a mistake. It's a surprise and while we weren't expecting it for at least a couple years, we would never call this baby a mistake."

"Are you trying to get me to believe that you didn't do this on purpose to break the prenup?"

"This was not planned!" I scream at them. "Jesus! Why can't you understand that? Do you think that if it was planned I would have spent the last 4 days of my honeymoon reassuring Rory and myself that we could do this? Or watching her cry at the fact that we were pregnant already? We're both happy about it now but it took us almost a week to become completely comfortable with it."

"Logan…" My mom starts.

"No this is what's going to happen. I'm going to tell you why you were kept in the dark and when I get done, I'm going upstairs and getting Rory and we're leaving."

"Why is Rory upstairs?" My dad asks.

"Because I sent her up there. She's already been in the hospital once because of her stress level. I'll be damned if I'm going to let you do anything that will cause her to go back."

"Wait, she's been in the hospital?" My mom asks.

"Yes, she has. A few days after we found out she was pregnant we were in Venezuela and she collapsed due to severe dehydration. Her stress level also played a factor in it."

"That's terrible." My mom comments.

"Don't say that unless you actually mean it because I'm getting really sick and tired of people acting under fake emotions."

"Logan…" My dad starts.

"No what's really terrible, mom is before she collapsed Rory saw blood trinkling down her leg. We thought she was having a miscarriage."

I've stunned my parents into silence. "And you honestly wonder why we didn't tell you privately? So why did Honor know? Because we stayed at her house the night Rory was released from the hospital. Besides, she's the only one out of this whole family that I trust. And she's the only one could reassure me I would not turn out like you." I glare at my dad.

"What the hell does that mean?" My dad roars.

"What that means is that my worst fear is becoming you. You have never cared about your kids. You've only cared about yourself." I throw back.

"You know damn well that's a lie. You have had everything you've ever wanted because of me."

"Yeah, except a father." I inform him. "This kid is going to have a father every time he or she needs it. I'm going to be there for everything." I declare. "Believe it or not, the cliche is true: money can't buy happiness.

I hear a knock on the door and Honor comes in. "Hey." She gives me a small smile. "Rory heard you all screaming and sent me down to check on you."

I smile back at her. "Tell her I'm fine and I'll be upstairs in a minute. Are you keeping her calm?"

"As much as I can." She confirms. "Maya's upstairs right now with her. Don't take too long because the only way I was able to stop her from coming down here herself was that I told her I'd do it for her."

"I'll be up in a minute. I promise."

My sister leaves and I turn back to my parents. "Honestly, I'm so sick of this. I'm sick of you treating Rory like crap." I glare at my mom. "And you treating me like it." I turn to my dad. "So now I've come to a decision. I'm tired of giving you chances to redeem yourselves. Every time I think you've changed all you do is prove how much you haven't. So as of right now, I'm officially leaving this family. We're not speaking. I don't want any communication with you and as far as the prenup goes, take it and do whatever the hell you want with it. It's not going to matter. We'll make due just fine without the money. I'm not putting up with this anymore. You've now officially lost your heir. I hope you're proud of yourselves." I storm out and slam the door. As soon as I leave, I see Honor waiting for me.

"Hey." I tell her.

"Hey." She gives me a hug. "Are you OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I assure her. "Why didn't you go back upstairs?"

"Well, Maya's up there with her so figured I'd stay down here in case you needed me."

"Thanks. Come on. Let's go."

We head upstairs and as I get closer to my bedroom, I can hear Maya and Rory talking.

"So which one do you want?"

"Oh, either one is going to be great. It doesn't matter. They'll be gorgeous no matter what."

My face breaks out into a huge grin. I wholeheartedly agree.

"So is Logan pretty excited?"

"Oh, you wouldn't believe how much." Rory gushes. That's true; I'm beyond ecstatic about it. "Want me to tell you a secret?"

"Sure." Maya tells her.

"He's already talking to the baby."

"Aww…that's sweet." My sister whispers.

"How cute." Maya tells her.

"Then of course there's the other thing he like to do."

"Really? What's that?"

I decide it's time to make my appearance known. "OK, Ace. I don't think Maya needs to hear about that."

"Oh sure I do."

"I'll tell you what. Rory can tell you what it is but first you get to tell me what is going on with you and Robert."

"You and Robert?" Honor raises an eyebrow. "Like his sometime friend Robert?"

"Yep, that's him."

I look around my room and realize then that I want to get out of this house. I don't want to be here a second longer than I have to. "And I want to hear about it but let's all go someplace else and get some coffee or something. I just don't want to stay here any longer."

"OK, I'll go get Josh and meet you at the front door." Honor takes off then. Maya excuses herself to go get her coat.

I turn back to Rory who has made herself comfortable on my bed. "How are you doing?"

"I'm better now that I see you're in one piece." She gives me a small smile.

"Yeah it was a rather heated conversation." I admit.

"I heard screaming Logan." She tells me.

"I know you did." I nod.

"What happened?"

I sigh. "Let's talk about it later."

"Logan…"

"Hey." I lean down and kiss her. "Everything's OK. I just want to get out of here."

"OK." She nods as I help her up. "Let's go." I thread our fingers together and lead her downstairs and I see my sister, Josh, and Maya waiting for us.

"Ready to go?" Maya asks.

"Yeah as soon as we get our coats." I tell her.

"Logan…wait a second." I see my dad come rushing to us.

I sigh and turn back to everyone else. I get the coats my parents' butler and help Rory put her coat on.

"Hey Logan, we'll meet you outside." Honor tells me.

After they leave I turn my father and stare at him. Rory's still standing beside me. "So what are you just going to leave now?"

I nod as I put my coat on, "Yeah, we are. I have nothing left to say to you." I tell him bluntly.

"I really don't want things to turn out like this." He tries to tell me.

"Yeah, I really didn't want them to either but I'm not going to let you insult my wife and my baby."

Rory clears her throat and I correct myself, "Sorry, **our** baby. You may not approve of the timing in which this child was conceived but that not does mean that we don't love it and it most certainly will never be considered a mistake in our books." I head for the door.

"Logan, wait please."

"No, I'm tired of waiting." I turn around and tell him. "I'm tired of waiting for the miraculous day that will have all of us happy and joyous and free from ridicule. That day isn't going to exist, I've found. I've given up on it. I'm tired of this family. I can't and I won't do this anymore." I turn around and storm out.

I come out of the house and see Maya, Honor and Josh standing there.

"Logan…you OK?" Honor asks me.

I nod.

"You sure?" Josh asks.

"Yeah, I'll be OK." I then turn around and see it's just me. "I lost Rory." I realize.

**

* * *

**

"Rory, wait please." Mitchum begs me.

My hand is resting on the doorknob. I turn around to look at him. "What Mitchum?"

"I don't think that your baby is a mistake." He admits to me.

"I'm glad to hear it." I tell him sadly.

"Please I don't want things to end like this."

"I know you don't." I whisper. "But Logan's my husband and I won't go against him." I tell him honestly. "He's been through a lot, Mitchum. This baby came out of nowhere. We weren't expecting it regardless of what you may think."

"I believe you." He assures me.

"Thank you. I've pushed him. I've pushed him all these times to reconcile with you especially when you and Shira came out to San Francisco. He really didn't want to do it. I wanted us to make a fresh start. I haven't given up on that yet. But right now, I can't and I won't go against him."

Mitchum stares at me sadly.

"Maybe someday things will be different. I hope so. But right now, I have to stand by him and honor his decision. Especially considering how he's always stood by me."

"What do you want me to do?"

"You need to give him time."

"How much time?"

"As much as he needs." I admit to him. "You can't force him into a reconciliation and this time I'm going to let him decide if and when he's ready. I really hope that things will be better by the time the baby comes but that's going to be up to you and Logan. You need to wait until he comes to you."

"And what if he doesn't?"

I tell him the truth. "I don't know but I think he will. But like I said, I'm not going to force him to do it before he's ready and it's going to have to be on his terms. He just needs time, OK?" I can hear talking outside the door. "I need to go. Take care Mitchum."

"You too Rory." I'm about out the door when I hear him call my name again.

"Yeah?"

"Take care of my son."

I smile. "I will."

"And my grandchild." He adds.

"I will, I promise."

* * *

**Kind of sad...well bittersweet is the perfect word for it. Like I said, next chapter will be at Richard and Emily's party. The following chapter will be Lorelai having her baby. Remember need names! Also I wanted to tell you all. I'm writing another Logan/Rory story. It's a rewrite of You Jump, I Jump Jack. Everything is the same except when in the SUV with everyone, Dean calls Rory. I got 35 pages into the story and decided I didn't like how it was written. I'm still going to write it but I need to do some rewriting. It is going to be OOC for Rory. At least parts of it will. Anyway, I'll get the next chapter out ASAP. Also, do you want the next chapter to begin with everyone having coffee or just that night after they back to Lorelai's house? Please please review! I really do love them!**


	30. Gilmore Christmas Party

**OK so I finally got the chapter done. It was kind of tough to write. Hopefully you like it. Remember to review. Still need names for Lorelai's baby! Please please review!**

**

* * *

**

I leave the house and Logan is standing there waiting for me. Everyone else is waiting at their cars.

"Hey, you OK?"

I nod. "Of course I'm OK. Ready to go?"

"Absolutely."

We head to the Jeep and follow Honor and Josh into downtown. Maya's behind us. We file in one by one and place our orders. It's shocking but I have scaled back on my coffee intake. I especially limited the amount of caramel macchiatos I drink. It's regular coffee I've been more prone to drink and only in moderation.

After we all grab coffee, we find a booth to sit around. It's a little crowded but it's not too bad.

"What a party that was." Maya declares as she sips her cappuccino.

"There were definitely no dull moments." Logan agrees as he drinks his coffee.

"You made sure of that, didn't you?" Honor teases him and he sighs.

"I really thought that things would go better if they found out the way they did."

"Live and learn." I conclude as I sip my macchiato.

"Did everyone hear the screaming?" Logan asks and Maya and Josh share a look.

"Should we lie?" Josh whispers.

"I would never expect you to do that." Logan admits. "I figured everyone probably did."

"As soon as I heard the yelling, I came out and I almost checked to make sure you were OK but I ran into Honor." Maya explains. "She said that was what she was going to do."

"Everything turned out OK though." Logan reasons and I can't help but think that he's lying. He may not be showing it but I think it's got to be getting to him. We'll talk about it later though.

"Let's move on to a different subject." I suggest as I sip my drink.

"Yeah so Maya what is this thing with you and Robert?" Logan asks.

Maya sighs. "What thing? There's not a thing." She insists. "We're really just friends."

"Yeah, sure you are." Honor grins.

"Robert's not really 'just friends' with women." Logan informs her. "He doesn't understand that phrase."

"Well, he must have some comprehension of it because that's all we are."

"So the two of you are strictly platonic, no kind of 'friends with benefits' thing going on?"

"Logan, honestly, why do you care?" Maya asks as her eyes narrow.

"Yes, Logan, honestly, why do you care?" I turn to him and ask.

"Because…if she's trying to get away from casual dating this is not the way to do it. That's what he does. That's **all** he does."

"She's a big girl, Logan." I tell him. "Drop it."

"I promise I'll be fine." Maya assures him. "Don't worry."

I look over at him and I can tell it still bothers him.

We spend about an hour at the coffee shop and then head back to my mom's house. It's just before 11 when we get back. The house is dark except for the light in the living room. The TV's on and my mom's asleep on the couch. She has a magazine in her lap and her reading glasses are on.

"If I didn't know better, I would think she was waiting up for us." Logan tells me.

"That's sweet." I comment as I take the magazine off her lap and toss it on the coffee table. "It's been quite awhile since she's had to do it." I reach down and nudge her arm. "Mom…mom."

She cracks an eye open. "Oh, hey. How was the party?"

"Memorable." I tell her.

"All Huntzberger Christmas parties are." Logan adds as he helps me out of my coat.

"Good memorable?" Mom looks hopeful as she sits up.

I look over at Logan and then tell her. "Parts of it. The baby news went pretty much the way we figured it would."

She gives me a sad smile. "I'm sorry, hun. I know you were hoping for a different reaction."

"Hoping but we both knew the way the conversation would go." Logan tells her. "And my parents didn't disappoint."

"Sorry Logan." She tells him.

"It's OK. Ace, I'm going to be in your room."

"OK." I nod. "I'll be in there in a couple minutes."

He nods and heads into my bedroom.

"Is he OK?" My mom whispers.

"I think so." I tell her. "I haven't really gotten a chance to talk to him privately about what happened."

"So what did happen?"

"Not completely sure." I admit. "I wasn't there. I got sent upstairs."

"Smart move." Mom admits to me.

"I started to hear screaming and I got worried so I made Honor go down and check on him. I got to thinking that there would be bloodshed if I didn't step in."

"Is everything OK now?"

I shake my head. "No, they're not speaking." I sigh. "Hey can we just talk about this more tomorrow? I want to go to bed and actually you should probably go yourself."

My mom yawns. "Yeah, I should." She admits. I help her get up. She's getting pretty close to her due date. Within the next 6 or 7 weeks I'm going to have a new little brother or sister.

After I give her a hug and a kiss, I tell my mom goodnight and she heads upstairs. I lock the front door and turn the lights off. I open the door to my bedroom and Logan's in the process of changing. He's taken off his tie and suit jacket.

"Everything OK?" He asks as he tosses the tie and jacket onto my desk chair.

I close the bedroom door and lock it. "Yeah, everything's fine."

"Are you tired?" He asks me and I laugh.

"Are you kidding? After that caramel macchiato, I'm wired." I admit to him and then turn around. "Can you unzip me please?"

He happily obliges and then continues to undress himself.

"Thank you." I step out of the dress and lay it over the chair with the rest of the clothes.

I stand in front of the mirror, just clad in my bra and underwear and examine my body. There is a little bit of a baby bump. Not much; I haven't started showing through my clothes yet. I probably will though by the time I get back for the arrival of my brother or sister. I'm resting my left hand on my stomach when I feel Logan's arms wrap around me and he kisses my neck.

"What are you thinking about?" He looks at me in the mirror. I look at him in the mirror then. He's completely changed out of his clothes and the only thing he's wearing his boxers. I turn around to face him. "Just about the baby. It's not going to be too much longer before I'm showing."

"I know." He grins as he kisses me. "I can't wait."

"You can't wait?" I repeat as I raise an eyebrow.

"What did you think I was going to say?" He asks.

"I don't know." I tell him honestly.

"Are you worried about that?"

"Some, I guess. It's kind of scary to think of how much weight I'm going to gain." I admit. "Do you know how much weight I've gained so far?"

"Ten pounds." He answers.

"How did you know that?"

"Rory, I've been with you for all of your doctor's appointments. Of course, I know how much weight you've gained. You look amazing."

I smile. "Are you still going to say that if I gain another 20 or 30 pounds?"

"Of course I will. Ace, I don't care how much weight you gain. I expect you to. I want this baby to be healthy."

"I want that too." I admit. "The baby will be healthy and happy too."

He kisses me then. "I love you."

"I love you too."

"Are you ready for bed?"

I shake my head as I kiss him. "No I was thinking something else."

"Mmm…do tell."

I grin as I push him down on my bed. "I'd rather show you." I inform him as I climb on top of him.

"It's amazing what pregnancy can do for a woman's libido." He tells me as he unhooks my bra.

"Are you complaining?"

"Of course not." He kisses me. "But I was nervous the first time after we found out."

I smile at him. "But then once the doctor in New York assured us that we could have sex throughout the entire pregnancy you relaxed?"

He grins. "Right."

"Logan?"

"Yeah Ace?"

"How about we end this night on a high note?" I suggest as I kiss him again.

"Sounds good to me."

At 2 o'clock, I'm half asleep and my back is to Logan. After we finished making love, I changed into my black satin pajamas and put slipper socks on my feet. I'm making sure I don't freeze tonight. I haven't forgotten what a Connecticut winter was like.

"Ace, you asleep?" He whispers as he runs his hand up and down my back.

"Not completely." I whisper back as I turn around to face him. "What's on your mind?"

"I was just wondering…" He's hesitating so I know where this is going.

"Yeah?"

"What did he say to you?"

"Logan, you were right by the door. Didn't you hear him?"

He shakes his head. "No that door is pretty heavy duty. I watched from the window to ensure you would be OK, though."

I nod.

"So what did he say?"

I sigh. "Well, he assured me that he doesn't think our baby was mistake."

"What did you say?"

"I told him that I was happy to hear it." I admit. "He kept telling me that he didn't want things to end this way."

"Well, he should have thought about that before."

"Hey." I tell him. "How about using these," I tug on his ears. "and leaving the retorts until after I finish, OK?"

He takes my hands off his ears and kisses each of them. "Sorry, Ace. Go ahead. I'm listening."

"I apologized to him but I told him that I wouldn't go against your wishes." I look over at him. I'm trying to determine what his expression is. It's unreadable at this point. Partly because he's being super quiet and also because it's so dark in my room. "I told him that you've always stood by me and so I was going to do the same for you."

He's not saying anything but I can see a smile on his face.

"I told him that I'm not going to force you to get along anymore…" I get cut off then.

"You didn't force me, Rory." He tells me quietly.

"Forced is the wrong word. Pushed was the word I used. I told him I wasn't going to push for it anymore."

"What did he say?"

"Actually he asked for my advice." I admit with a grin.

It's still dark but I can still see that he's raised his eyebrows at that. "He asked you for advice?"

I nod. "Yeah, he did." I admit. "He asked what he should do."

"So what did you tell him?" He asks as he strokes my hair.

"I told him that he needed to give you time. He wasn't going to be able to force you into a reconciliation. When he asked how much time I said as much time as you needed."

"Yeah, until hell freezes over."

"Hey." I cover his mouth with my hand. "Just listen." I remove my hand and he nods. "I told him I have hope for the future but everything is going to be done on your time table. He has to wait for you to decide."

"I'm sure he loved the vagueness."

"Yeah, he's worried it's never going to happen."

"It is never going to happen." He confirms and I groan.

"Logan…"

"No. I mean it, Rory. I'm never going to forgive him."

I sigh and look over at the time. 2:42. This is a lot to handle this early in the morning. "I meant what I said. I'm standing by you through this but Logan, you need to do me a favor."

"What's that?"

"Never say never."

"Rory…"

"No just wait. Let me finish. I understand why you're so mad and everything. You have every right to be. I really do want you to take all the time you need. Take 10 months; take 10 years but don't say never." I get quiet then. "My fear is that you and your dad will be like my mom and my grandma and I don't want to see that. The only time I ever saw my grandparents before I went to Chilton was on major holidays. The atmosphere had always been pretty frigid. They were always polite to me but I couldn't ever get over that. I always felt that I had to defend each side. I got caught in the middle. I don't want our kids to have to feel like that. I'm not going to force you to make up but just don't say never, OK?"

He gets quiet on me. It takes him a few minutes to respond. "OK. I won't say never."

"Thank you." I smile at him then give him a kiss. "I love you so much, Logan."

"I love you too Ace." He gives me a longer kiss. "Come on. It's almost 3. We better go to sleep."

I nod as my eyes start to drift shut. I open them back up for a second.

"Goodnight Ace."

"Goodnight Logan."

He leans down and kisses my stomach. "Goodnight baby." I have to giggle. It is still so cute that he does that. He gives me one last kiss right before I drift off to sleep.

The next time I wake up it's almost 11. Logan's still asleep beside me. I yawn and sit up and stretch. I then lean down and kiss him.

His eyes crack open. "Good morning." He smiles.

"Good morning. Sleep good?"

"Yeah. You?"

"Yeah, pretty good. I better get up. I'm going to go meet Lane for lunch. Were you going to come or do something else?"

"No, I'll come with you." He tells me. "What time are you meeting her?"

"At 11:30."

"Oh, yeah we should get going."

It's just after 11:30 when we arrive at Luke's. We get a table in the corner. Lane's not here yet. She arrives a few minutes later though pushing her 2 seater stroller. It's a good thing it's a little warmer and there's no snow otherwise she'd have to make the 3 block trip in her minivan.

"Hey guys." She grins as she pushes the stroller over to us. I can't believe how big Kwan and Steve are. They have to be getting close to a year old now.

"Hey." I tell her.

"Hey Lane." Logan tells her.

I help her with the boys and get Kwan's coat off. I set him in my lap and wrap my arm around his middle. "So how have you been?" I ask her.

"Tired…good. Things are good."

"Hey Rory, Hey Logan." Luke greets us. "Hey Lane." I'm actually waiting for him to say something about the fact that Lane brought the boys in because he has a thing about babies in the diner but instead I hear him say. "Wow! I can't believe how big your boys are getting, Lane."

Maybe the fact that he's going to be a dad soon has changed his opinion.

"I know. It's so hard to believe they're almost a year old." Lane tells him.

"Do you guys know what you want to eat?"

We put in our orders and Luke heads back into the kitchen to make them. The boys are being very talkative with all of their babbling.

"I bet you never get a quiet moment, do you?" I tell her as I drink my Coke.

"It's pretty rare." She confesses. "At least they're sleeping all the way through the night. Just think a year from now you're going to have your own."

"Ours will be around 6 months old at this time next year." Logan reminds her. "And if we're lucky he or she's going to be sleeping through the night."

"Hi doll. Hi Logan." Babette comes over to our table. "Hi Lane."

"Hi Babette." We greet her in unison.

"So how are you sweetie?" Babette asks. "Your mom told me you would be back for Christmas."

"Yeah, we got back yesterday afternoon." I tell her.

"So how long are you going to be staying?"

"Until probably a couple days after Christmas." Logan tells her. "Rory's grandparents have their Christmas party tonight."

"Oh, that's right. Your mom mentioned that." She tells us. "Speaking of your mom, she's getting pretty big, isn't she?"

Luke comes out carrying our food. "For your safety, Babette, I would not mention that to her." He advises and we break out in laughter.

"Yeah, she is but she's also pretty close to the end of her pregnancy too." I remind her as I take a bite of my food.

"When is she due?"

"The day before Valentine's Day."

"That's getting really close."

"Yeah, it is." I take a bite of my hamburger.

"Well, I better let you eat." She starts to leave. "Take care sweetie."

"Bye Babette." We tell her.

After she leaves we continue to talk and eat. At one point, Logan takes Steve from Lane so she can finish eating. He seemed a little unsure at first; Steve, not Logan. Actually, I guess they both looked a little unsure. After a little whining at first, Steve had seemed to adapt to Logan really well.

"So…what do you guys think you're going to have?" Lanes asks as she finishes her hamburger.

Logan and I share a look. "I'm not sure." I tell her honestly.

"What do you want to have?"

I look over at him. "You know I answered this question last night for your aunt but I haven't heard your thoughts lately on the topic. What do you think we're going to have?"

"I'm not sure."

"What are you hoping for?" I ask him.

"It honestly doesn't matter to me but it might be nice to have a girl first."

"Really?" I raise an eyebrow."You want a girl first?"

"Like I said, either would be great but yeah it would."

"How much longer until you would be able to find out?"

"I think around another month." I tell her as I polish off my French fries.

"When is your due date?"

"June 18th."

"Rory…" Miss Patty comes up to me. "Did I hear you right?"

"What's that Miss Patty?"

"Are you having a baby?"

I smile. "Yes, I am. I'm due in the middle of June."

"Well, that's fabulous, darling. Congratulations. Congratulations Logan."

"Thank you." He smiles at her.

Luke comes back to clear some plates and Patty rushes over to him and gives him a huge hug.

"Patty…" He struggles to get out. "You're strangling me."

"I just heard the news. Congratulations grandpa."

"Oh god." Luke grumbles and we laugh.

"Wow! You get to be a dad and a grandpa in the same year." Patty realizes.

"Thank you Patty. I needed another reminder of that." He grumbles.

"Oh, quit being so grumpy. Congratulations again you guys."

"Thank you." We answer in unison and she leaves the diner.

Luke sighs. "You realize that she's now going to tell the whole town, right?"

"I know. My grandparents will find out tonight anyway. They were going to know eventually."

It's just after one 1 when we leave. We walk Lane and the boys back to their apartment. I tell her that I'll stop by tomorrow and bring by their presents. As we're walking home, everyone in the whole town is stopping us to tell us congratulations. Miss Patty apparently didn't waste any time telling everybody.

"Are you feeling the love, Huntzberger?" I ask him as soon as we get a second alone.

"It's definitely a change from last night." He remarks. "Are you ready to head back? It's pretty cold."

I nod. "Yeah, we better."

It's just after 6:30 now and we're getting ready to leave for grandma and grandpa's house. Within the last 2 weeks my mom and Luke decided it would be best to go car shopping. Baby car seats and Jeeps don't really work well together. At least not the two seater Jeeps. They went to 4 different dealerships and saw over 2 dozen vehicles and they ultimately decided on an SUV. I must admit it is a nice, roomy vehicle.

"So…good news traveled fast today." My mom comments as we head out of town. "It took Sookie about 5 minutes before she would tell me why she was hugging me."

Logan and I laugh. "Yeah, I know. It's like I told Miss Patty and then within 10 minutes the whole town knew."

"I warned you." Luke reminds me.

"I just didn't think it would make it around town that quick."

"Rory, you've lived in that town your whole life. Yes you did realize it." My mom points out.

"What's the big deal? They were all going to know eventually. Logan and I made a deal that we were going to wait until the 1st trimester was over. That ended last week."

"So when are you going to tell them?" Mom asks.

"I don't know." I shrug. "We'll have to wait and see."

"We will be telling them by themselves though." Logan remarks. "I learned my lesson last night."

I give him a sad smile.

"You know, Logan, I really am sorry to hear what happened between you and your parents." My mom turns around and tells him. She's in the passenger seat and Luke's driving.

He gives her a rueful smile. "Thanks, Lorelai."

"Maybe they just need more time to adjust." Mom suggests and Logan sighs.

"Maybe but I'm not going to hold my breath waiting."

Luke and my mom share a look and I sigh.

We pull into my grandparents' driveway at just after 7. All of us get out of the vehicle and just stare at their house.

"Should we be synchronizing our watches?" My mom asks.

"Three hours?" I ask.

"That's 2 ½ hours too long." My mom groans.

"No, that's 3 hours too long." Luke argues.

"Yeah, I know but look at it this way, Luke. The sooner we go in the sooner we can leave." I tell him. He likes that prospect. He rings the doorbell, in fact.

The new maid opens the door for us and as soon as we step in, here comes my grandma.

"Well, there you are. I was beginning to wonder whether or not you were ever coming in." She comments.

"Mom, what are you talking about? We just got here." Mom tells her as she takes off her coat and hands it to the maid.

"You got here 5 minutes ago, Lorelai. I saw you through the window. You've been outside staring at the house for some odd reason."

"Well, we were just talking about how we were missing the snow, Emily." Logan offers. "Rory and I were just talking about this a few days ago about how we were glad we were coming back because it wouldn't feel like Christmas without snow."

"It's the one downfall of California." I add. "It's a rarity to see snow."

"Oh, I'm sure it is." My grandma smiles politely. "Well, come in, come in."

"What do you want to drink, Ace?" Logan asks me after we handed our coats to the maid.

"Coke's fine."

Logan heads off to go get our drinks and I'm left talking to my grandma.

"So how are you doing?" She asks.

"Good. Things are good. I'll start work soon."

"That's wonderful. What job will you be doing again?"

"I'll be the editor of the online magazine at the same company Logan works for."

"And she's going to do a fabulous job at it." Logan adds as he brings me my Coke.

"Oh, that's no pressure." I comment as I take a sip of it.

"What are you so worried about Ace? You're going to do great. She's going to have 25 people working for her, Emily."

"That's wonderful, Rory."

"Hello everyone." My grandpa joins us and gives me a hug and shakes Logan's hand.

"Hi grandpa."

"Hello Richard."

"So how are you kids doing?"

"Good." I tell him.

"Very good." Logan answers. "We were just telling Emily about Rory's job."

"She has her own staff, Richard, of 25 people." Grandma tells him.

"Wow! That's very impressive, Rory." He tells me. "Are you excited to be starting work?"

"Yes, I am." I admit. "I'll think it'll be great."

"So how did things go at your parents' party last night?" Grandma asks Logan and he and I share a worried look.

"Umm…" He starts.

"Unfortunately, not well grandma." I tell her. "Logan and his parents had a fight and they're currently not on speaking terms." I inform her.

"Well, that's terrible, Logan. What happened?" She asks. "I thought things were better between you and your parents."

"They were." He tells her as he sips his scotch. "But we gave them some news last night and based on their reactions and the comments they made, I've decided that for the time being that we're not talking."

"Rory!" I look over and see my dad call to me. I'm a little surprised to see him here. It turns out that grandma and grandpa invited both my dad and Francine. Gigi got to stay at home with the babysitter.

"We'll be back in a little bit." I tell them. "We haven't had a chance to talk to dad since we came back. We'll be back soon." I grab Logan's free hand and tug him in the direction that my dad's in. I know the reason I gave them was silly especially considering it's been just as long since I had seen them as I had him but I'm not ready to tell them the news yet.

"Hey kiddo." He gives me a hug and a kiss.

"Hi dad."

"Hey Logan." Dad shakes his hand.

"Hey Chris. It's good to see you."

"You too. So how are you doing?"

"We're good." Logan responds.

"We're all good." I correct and Logan smiles.

"Yeah, that's what I meant, Ace."

We talk for a little while about work, California, and Gigi in school. The baby topic doesn't come up. My dad's mom joins us then. We talk to her for about 20 minutes until Logan decides to excuse us to go get some food.

"How are you doing?" He asks as we load up on appetizers.

"Fine. Check back with me at the end of the party after we tell them, though."

"Do you really think it'll be bad?"

"I'd like to say no but they can be pretty unpredictable."

Logan and I spend the next 45 minutes eating, mingling, and watching my mom stuff apple tarts into her purse. She must have crammed a good 6 or 7 in there. Logan leaves me to go refill his scotch and get me a Shirley Temple.

I take a sip of it and frown. "It's not as good as last night."

"That's because I had it made the regular way and not 90% grenadine and 10% 7up."

"It's good that way." I argue.

"You will survive, Ace. Besides," He gives me a kiss then his voice drops, "huge amounts of sugar are not good for the baby."

"There you are!" My grandma comes marching towards us. "I've been looking for you two all over."

"You ready?" I ask Logan under my breath and he nods. "Sure, go ahead."

"Grandma, can we talk to you and grandpa in grandpa's study for a moment?"

"Sure, is everything OK?"

"Yes, everything's fine, Emily." Logan informs her. "We just have some news we'd like to share with you privately."

"Of course. I'll get Richard and meet you in his study." She heads off and I scan the parlor room looking for Francine. I see her off in the distance talking to some of grandma's DAR friends.

"Hello ladies." I greet them with a smile.

"Rory…" Nora tells me. "It's lovely to see you. Where have you been hiding all night?"

I laugh. "Oh, I've just been mingling around." I explain. "Do you ladies think I could steal my grandma for a moment? Logan and I need to discuss something with her."

They happily agree and Francine follows me into grandpa's study. Logan and my grandparents are already waiting for us. We decided that we would let my parents keep mingling. There's no reason they have to sit in on this.

"OK, we're all here. What is with all of the secretiveness?" My grandma asks.

"Well, we had some news that we wanted to share with you." I start.

"And we thought it would be best to share it privately. We gave the news to my parents in a group and it severely backfired." Logan admits.

"Well, what is it?" My grandpa asks.

I give Logan a nod to tell him. "Rory's pregnant."

My grandma and grandpa's first reaction is ecstasy. They give us huge hugs. Francine appears to be happy too but she's not sharing in their level of enthusiasm.

"So when are you due? When did you find out?" My grandma starts throwing out questions at us and we laugh.

"Well, my due date is June 18th and we actually found out on our honeymoon." Grandma's face goes blank then. I figured her joyousness might be short lived.

"Wait, you've known since your honeymoon?" My grandma's voice raises and we sigh.

"We weren't intentionally keeping you in the dark to be mean, Emily." Logan tells her. "There have been only 4 people besides us who have known this entire time that Rory was pregnant and that's her parents, Luke, and my sister. My parents had no clue until last night." OK so that list is a lie. I mean, the LDB members knew and so did Lane but you know what? She doesn't know any of those people really well if at all so why add fuel to the fire?

My grandma storms out of the study and a few moments later, comes back with my parents. Luke isn't with them though. He probably saw my grandma's expression and took off in the other direction. I wouldn't blame him.

"Would like to tell me why you are being so rude?" My mom demands as she comes into the study and my dad is trailing behind her. He closes the door. "If I did something like that to you, I would not hear the end of you quoting Emily Post."

"How long have you known that Rory was pregnant?"

"Since she came back from her honeymoon. Why?"

"How could you go three months without telling me?"

"Because it was not my news to tell you, mom." Mom informs her. "This was Rory's news and she asked that we wait to tell anyone."

"Emily, please stop." My grandpa tells her. "You have no reason to be upset. How long did we wait to tell people that you were pregnant with Lorelai?"

"I don't remember." Grandma claims.

"Well, I'll tell you. You were in your 2nd trimester. I'm sure Rory and Logan have very valid reasons for not telling us sooner."

"We do." I tell them.

"Emily, the news caught us by surprise. We weren't planning this for a couple years. We spent the last 4 days of our honeymoon assuring each other that we can do this. It was shortly after that when we had a scare. When Rory was in the hospital, it was because of the dehydration when she getting morning sickness." Logan explains. "Before she had collapsed she had seen blood. We thought she was having a miscarriage."

Grandma's face goes to sheer horror. "Well, that's awful!"

"Yes, it is." I tell her quietly as I sit down on the couch. "I wanted to wait until the 1st trimester was over because of that."

"Well, of course that's understandable, dear. Most people wait at least 3 months before they tell people." Francine mentions. "Your grandmother would never hold a grudge over this, would you Emily?"

"Well, of course not." Grandma tells us and I breathe a sigh of relief internally. "I'm very happy for them."

"It's nice to hear a positive response compared to last night." Logan comments.

My dad frowns. "Why? What kind of response did you get?"

"My father called our baby a mistake." Logan admits and I hear an uproar from all of them.

"Mitchum did what?" Grandpa roars.

"The nerve of that man!" Grandma declares.

"Your father truly is a jackass, Logan." Francine comments.

"I've known it for almost 26 years, Francine. You're not giving me new information. I know he is." Logan tells her.

I look over at the clock. We've been in here for almost half an hour. "Hey we better head back out."

"That's a good idea, Rory." Grandpa says. "Come on. We need to make sure the party's still going." Everyone starts to leave. There's only Logan, me and Francine left in the study.

"Logan, could you give me a minute alone with my grandma?"

He looks at me curiously for a second then smiles. "Sure, Ace." He gives me a quick kiss. "I'll be right outside." He leaves and closes the door behind him.

"I just wanted to talk to you for a moment." I sit back down on the couch and she follows suit.

"Of course dear. What did you want to talk about?"

"Well, I just saw you reaction when we first told you the news and I'm sure I can guess what you were thinking. I just really wanted to apologize to you."

She frowns at me. "Apologize? For what?"

"I know it may seem like Logan and I concocted this plan to break the prenup but I promise you we didn't."

"I know." She nods.

"We really weren't planning this."

"I know." She repeats.

"Do you know that? Because the money is not that important to me so if you feel it's necessary, take the money back."

"No, that won't be necessary, dear. I know this wasn't planned. If it had been, I doubt that Logan would have waited to try and get you pregnant. Yes, I would never think of your baby as a mistake. I'm very happy for you and Logan. I think you'll be great parents."

I grin at that. "Thank you grandma. I really appreciate you saying that." I give her a hug and we stand up and leave the study.

"Excuse me everyone…could I have your attention please?" My grandpa announces as I make my way back over to Logan.

"Hey…everything OK?" He asks as he hands me a Coke.

I nod. "Yeah, Everything's good." I turn my attention back to my grandpa.

"Emily and I would like to thank you all for coming tonight. We always enjoy spending the holidays with our family and our friends. As you all probably know, my daughter Lorelai will soon be having her 2nd baby and we couldn't be happier." There's a round of applause for my mom.

"That's the first time I've heard him say that out loud." My mom whispers to me and I smile.

"I'd like to share another piece of news with you all if it is OK with my granddaughter." All eyes fall on me.

"Sure grandpa. Go ahead." I tell him.

"We had just been informed by Rory and Logan that they are expecting a baby next summer."

There's a huge round of applause again. Logan grins and I blush. Everyone's coming up to congratulate us. We get swarmed by people for the next fifteen minutes. The next time I see the clock, it's just after 10. We've stayed our 3 hours and I look across the room and see my mom giving me the 'let's get the hell out of here' look.

"Hey, what do you know? You got that look from your mom." Logan teases. "I didn't know that she had that look."

I laugh. "Yeah, I picked it up from her. Ready to go?"

"Sure, let's go."

I flag down the maid and ask her for our coats. She heads off and we go to find my grandparents to say goodbye. My grandma frowns when she sees Logan helping me get my coat on.

"Wait, you're leaving already?"

"Yeah, it's been a long day grandma so we need to get going."

"Are you leaving too?" Grandma asks mom.

"Well, yeah, I mean we rode together, mom."

"Well, I feel like we didn't get to spend too much time together." Grandma tells me and Logan.

"You're kidding right?" My mom says. "They spent a good portion of time with you. Besides it's not like you're not going to see them. We'll be back in a couple days."

"Oh, that's true." Grandma nods. "OK, well, drive safely home. We'll see you in a couple days." She hugs all of us…even Luke. I know that felt awkward to him. Just grandma being nice has to feel a little strange to him.

It's a pretty quiet ride home. We talk about how the news went and how we're happy that the responses were radically different than the night before. We get home just after 10:30 and my mom and Luke head to bed. We start to head to my room and Logan tells me. "I've got a surprise for you."

"Really? What's that?" My eyes light up.

"It's in your room. Go look."

I head into my room but I'm not seeing anything different. "What am I missing?" I turn around and ask him and then I see it. He's got mistletoe hanging in my doorway. I didn't see it on the way in because it wasn't visible until I turned around.

"Come here." He's standing in the doorway, grinning at me. I grin as I walk over to him and give him a kiss. He turns it into something longer.

"Merry Christmas." He tells me.

"Merry Christmas." I tell him. "Even though Christmas is still a couple days away." I kiss him again.

"I know but I now fully believe that it's going to be a great one."

"Me too." I beam as I kiss him again.

* * *

**OK let's talk sequel. Who wants one? I'm thinking about about 3 or 4 more chapters then an epilogue for what's left of this story. If you want a sequel, let me know because I have a topic I'm going to bring up in the story that would need to be carried over into it and if you don't want one, I'll leave it out. Now, Rory's baby is going to be named Lorelai and I'm playing around with the middle name. I'm thinking of going for 2 middle names. I have one picked but would like your opinion on the other because I think that's where we're going to get her nickname from. OK so next chapter, Lorelai has her baby and I still need some names :D Also brought up is the fact that Rory does not listen and is pushing herself and of course Logan's not having that. Also a baby surprise...:D Need reviews everybody!**


	31. Happy Valentine's Day Baby

**OK so I warned all of you this would be a super long chapter and I did not disappoint. This is the longest chapter I've ever typed. It's 11320 words without the author's note. I cover A LOT in this chapter. I wanted to ask all of you a question. Do you want Rory's baby to have Lorelai for the 1st name or a middle name. If it's the 1st name she's going to be called by a middle name and if it's as a middle name, I'll have what I'm going to call her as the 1st name. Speaking of I have to thank everyone for name ideas for Lorelai's baby's name. I had a name idea from my cousins but I got the spelling of it from PuppiesRCute. I picked a different middle name but I used the first name. The topic at the end of this chapter is going to be carried over into the sequel which is why I wanted to know if you all wanted a sequel. I was ecstatic to hear that you did. Anyway, remember to review. I love reading them! **

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**Day before Valentine's Day (aka Lorelai's due date)**

I wake up at quarter to 7 and realize that I'm in bed alone…again. I'd like to believe that Rory is just in the kitchen eating breakfast but I know she's not. She's already left for work. She's making this a habit now. I've tried to be nice and just bringing it up to her and she tells me she doesn't plan on making it a habit but with Rory it's in one ear and out the other. I don't think she's taken me seriously. Once the baby's born and she's back to work, that's one thing but until then she gets to go by what I say.

After I shower, shave, get dressed, and have breakfast, I'm out the door at 7:30. I normally get to work between 8:30 and 9. It all depends on the traffic. Most mornings it's OK but afternoon traffic is a bitch.

I get to work just after 8:30 and the first thing I do is let Jordan, Rory's secretary, know that I need Rory in my office in the next 5 minutes. We're stopping this right now. About 3 minutes after I get to my office, Jordan calls me to let me know that Rory told her she'd be up as soon as she could. I ask Jordan if she's currently on the phone and she says no. I tell her to put me through to her.

"Hello?"

"Hey Ace. You need to get up here within the next 5 minutes." I tell her as I start looking through the paperwork on my desk.

"Didn't Jordan tell you I'd be up as soon as I could?"

"Yes, she did however that is not an option for you. You have two of them: one, is you get up here in the next 5 minutes or two, I will come down there and drag your ass back up here. It's your choice."

"Logan…"

"Rory, I am not joking. Take your pick; the clock is ticking."

"Fine." She grumbles and hangs up on me.

Three minutes and thirty six seconds later, she comes storming in. "OK, I'm here. What is so important, Logan?" She demands.

I look her over. Her hair's to her shoulders now. From the way it sounds, she may keep it that way for the immediate future. She's sporting a little bit of a baby bump through her clothes now. She's never looked more beautiful to me than she does right now…even if she does have a look on her face like she wants to kill me.

"Can you shut the door please?"

She grudgingly shuts it and folds her arms across her chest.

"Are you going to sit down?" I ask her.

"No. Just tell me what you needed so I can go back to work please."

"What time did you get here?" I ask her calmly.

"Eight o'clock." She tells me without batting an eyelash.

I make a buzzer sound. "Wrong. Try again and this time why don't you try the truth?"

"I don't know, Logan. Why?"

"I checked with the security guard. You badged in at 7:18."

"So what's the big deal?"

"You know exactly what the big deal is, Ace. We had a deal. You are not supposed to be here before 8 o'clock."

"We're leaving tonight and I won't be back until next Monday, Logan. I'm trying to make sure everything is taken care of." She tries to reason.

"I don't care, Rory. Everything will be fine the 4 days we're gone. You have shown up early for the 3rd time this week. Did I mention it's only Wednesday?"

"Things will calm down soon, I promise." She tells me.

"Not soon enough at this rate. I've told you repeatedly that if I found you doing this, I'd send you home. Give me a good reason why I shouldn't."

"Because I'm your wife."

"Who's carrying my child." I add. "Rory, your mom is going into the hospital tonight to have her baby. Do you want to be prevented from flying home because you're stuck in the hospital here? I'm trying to keep your stress level low."

"Interesting considering all you're managing to do is elevate it. My stress level was low until I came in here." She throws back.

"Do you really think by telling me that that I won't send you home?"

"I honestly don't care at this point." She snaps.

"Good; go home."

"Logan…"

"You have 5 minutes to get your stuff and I'm calling the home phone in an hour to make sure you're there. If this is what it takes for you to take me seriously, so be it." I conclude.

"If you send me home, I'm flying back to Connecticut sooner than tonight."

"No, you're not." I inform her. "Because I'll call your mom to prevent that from happening. I don't want you flying by yourself."

"I really don't care what you want." She tells me as she storms out.

I sigh. Yeah, that went really well. I get on my cell phone and call Lorelai.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Lorelai."

"Oh, hi Logan. How are you?"

"Honestly, not the greatest. I know you have a lot going on right now but I need you to do me a favor. It's about Rory."

"Sure. What is it?"

"We had a fight just now about how she keeps showing up to work early. I've told her repeatedly to stop and she's not listening."

"That sounds about right."

"I sent her home and she's pissed off and threatening to fly home early."

"She doesn't need to be here any sooner."

"So when she calls, tell her that. I'm nervous about her flying by herself since she's pregnant."

"Don't worry; I'll tell her to stay put."

"Thank you." I breathe a sigh of relief. "So how are you feeling?"

"I'm doing OK but I can't wait to see my feet again."

I laugh at that. We talk for a few minutes and I thank her again and tell her we'll see her tomorrow morning. It's more than likely going to be after 3 o'clock when we get there. OK so I know I could have handled things better with Rory. She wasn't taking me seriously though. I don't want her to wind up in the hospital. I'm being a concerned husband and father to be. Once the baby is born, I'll have no problems with it.

I actually give her an hour and 10 minutes and when I call, it rings 3 times, picks up, and then disconnects. She must still be pissed at me. Well, at least she's home.

**

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I'm beyond pissed off right now. I can't believe he sent me home! Doesn't he realize that there's a new issue to get out and the small amount of time to do it in? He's just doing this to be annoying. It has nothing to do with the baby.**

I called my mom about halfway back to the condo and tell her I'm booking a flight to come home early and she tells me no and informs me that Logan's already called her. I swear to God he's working my last nerve.

So to get back at him when he called me, I hung up on him without saying a word. I refuse to talk to him right now. I'm still too mad at him. I decide to spend some time on my laptop. I try to get into the database however Logan has blocked my access. He's losing a lot of points with me right now. I'm going to wage this silent war until further notice. It's going to be a long, silent flight.

I really don't do much. I make myself a sandwich and go back on my laptop. Logan does try to talk to me but I decide to block him. I check my email and then head onto Facebook. I consider changing my status but I decide against it. If my mom sided with Logan, I could see everyone else agreeing with him too, even if I currently don't. I take a look at my picture. It's one of our wedding pictures when we were on the dance floor kissing. It's one of my favorite pictures. I do have several photo albums including the wedding, my bachelorette party at the Awesome 80's Prom, and of course sonogram pictures. I'll have another one done soon and so I may replace the wedding picture with that one.

My phone starts to ring and I look at the caller ID. It's my mom. "Hey mom."

"Hey hun. Are you still talking to me?" She asks and I smile.

"Of course I am."

"How about Logan? Are you talking to him?"

"Nope and it just may be a nice, silent flight home."

"Rory, he's just doing what he thinks is best. He's just trying to look out for you and the baby."

"I know that, mom but he didn't have to send me home an hour and a half after I got there. He could have told me to go home early this afternoon."

"And you would have listened to him?"

I get quiet then.

"That's right; you wouldn't have. He's doing this to prove a point to you. You should stop thinking if this as a personal vendetta against you."

I know she's right. He did in fact warn me several times that if I pushed it too far and by it being going to work too early, he would resort to sending me home. He's right; I didn't take him as seriously as I should have.

"I'm not." I tell her quietly. "I know he would never do it without a good reason."

"Good. Now stop being mad at him."

"I will. So how are you feeling?"

"I'm doing good, hun. Kind of tired. This kid will not stop kicking up a storm."

"That's a good thing, you know."

"It is good but I would like to get more than an hour of sleep."

"It's funny hearing you say that considering within the next 24 hours you're having a baby."

"Yes but right now it's only me who's partaking in the sleeplessness. After I have the baby, Luke will get to share in the insomnia."

I die laughing.

"I think he'll do good at it."

I get up from the couch and head into the nursery, which is the room right next to ours. I glance around the room and smile. Logan just got done painting the room a couple of weeks ago. It's absolutely stunning. There are various shades of rose throughout the room. We found out about three weeks ago that we're having a girl. Logan was over the moon when we heard the news. The weekend after we found out, we went out and picked out paint colors and also the baby furniture. That money that was left over from the 100 grand we were spending on the LDB event came in handy. All of the furniture is wood but it's painted white. I really do love this room.

"Ror?" My mom says which brings me out of my trance. I didn't realize how quiet I had been.

"Yeah?"

"What are you doing?"

"I'm just in the baby's room. We got it painted and all of the furniture assembled."

"That's great. So any more news?"

"Like what?"

"Like, has she started kicking yet?"

I sigh. "No, not yet." It's getting frustrating too. I mean, I'm 5 months along now. I would have thought it would have happened by now.

"I'm sorry, Ror. Just be patient." My mom says. "Have you been talking to her?"

"Some but I think that Logan talks to her more than I do." I admit.

"Talk to her some more." She suggests.

"I'll try that." I tell her.

"Listen, hun, I better go. I need to get stuff ready."

"OK, sounds good. What time are you being induced tomorrow?"

"6 am."

"Wow!" I exclaim. "So is April coming back?" I ask about Luke's daughter.

"Yes, she's back. She actually got in today. She's staying with her grandma tonight since Luke's going to be in the hospital with me."

"Oh, OK. I'll see her tomorrow then."

"Yep, you will."

"OK, well I guess we'll see you tomorrow morning."

"You will. I love you, kid."

"I love you too mom. Bye." I hang up and set the phone down on the table by the rocking chair. I turn the rocking chair around so it's facing the window and then take a seat. I start to rock back and forth. I can't see the road below but I do have my great views of the city in the distance. It's very calming right now. I rest my left hand on my stomach. I decide to take my mom's advice then.

"Hi my baby." I whisper. "It's mommy. I can't wait to see you. I know it will still be awhile before daddy and I get to meet you but I just want you to know we are so excited." I sigh. "We've been through a lot together, you and I. It wasn't easy in the beginning, was it? You were such a surprise to us and then we almost lost you." My voice is barely above a whisper and I'm almost on the verge of tears. "It was the scariest thing I've ever had to live through." I admit to her as the tears start to freely fall. "It was very scary for daddy too.

"You've got a great daddy." I inform her. "He's kind, he's sweet, he's handsome and he's my rock. He's been so strong through all the rough times we've went through. There's been a lot of them unfortunately. We haven't talked to daddy's mommy and daddy…" God, did I really just call Shira and Mitchum that? Well, it is my daughter I'm talking to. "In a couple months. Daddy's been strong but I think he wishes things were different. I know I do. I want your grandma and grandpa to be head over heels in love with you like we are. Maybe in the future they will be. Your aunt Honor is though. She's daddy's sister.

"You really do have a great daddy. I know you may be wondering if he is because I'm sure you heard the yelling earlier but daddy is just looking out for you. I should have listened to him." I admit as I move my hand over my stomach. I'm still not feeling anything yet. The tears are still falling.

"I just want you know that I love you so much, sweetie. I love you, daddy loves you. We can't wait to see you." I admit quietly. "You know I was kind of hoping that maybe you would start kicking for me but I guess you're not going to. You're probably still getting used to hearing my voice. If daddy was here and you heard his voice I'm sure you'd be kicking then." I reveal. "I think you know daddy's voice better than mine."

"That's silly, Rory and you know it." I jump for a second in the chair as I look over my shoulder and see Logan standing in the doorway.

"Logan, what the hell are you doing home already? It's only…" I glance up at the wall clock. "Three-thirty."

"The flight leaves at 6 and we should get there early."

"You didn't need to come home this early, though." I tell him.

"I'm glad I did." He admits as he comes into the room and stands by the rocking chair.

"How much of that conversation did you hear?" I look at him skeptically.

"Between you and the baby? All of it." He grins at me. "I actually heard the tail end of the conversation you had with your mom."

"Nice of you to eavesdrop." I comment and he stops the chair from rocking.

"One, as soon as I walked in the door, I called your name but you didn't answer. And two," He leans down and gives me a quick kiss. "I don't consider it eavesdropping when it's in my own home."

I give him a sad smile at him so he crouches down to where he's eye level with me. "Ace, she knows your voice. She's inside you. She hears your voice all day even if you're not talking directly to her. Me, I think I have to talk to her a lot so that way she'll know what my voice sounds like."

"She knows your voice." I tell him quietly. "Why hasn't she started kicking, Logan?"

He wraps his arms around me and gives me a big hug. "She will, Rory." He kisses my forehead. "Just give her time. All babies are different." He reminds me. "I'm sure she will soon."

It gets quiet for a minute then Logan breaks the silence. "It's nice that you're talking to me again."

I sigh. "You better just be glad that my mom was on your side because otherwise I could have seen this silent treatment continuing longer."

"You know why I did it."

I nod. "Yeah, I do." I pause for a minute. "Did you really hear that whole conversation with the baby?"

He grins as he leans forward and gives me a kiss. This time it's a longer one. "Yes, I did. I heard it all including telling her how you wished things were different between daddy and his mommy and daddy."

"You know that sounds silly when you repeat it back like that." I inform him with a laugh. "I understand why things are the way they are but I'm not going to stop wishing that things were different, Logan. I'm still trying to keep a positive attitude."

"Honestly, I wish things were different too Ace but has he tried to contact us over the last 6 weeks to tell us how sorry he and my mom are? No, he hasn't."

I nod. "Yeah, I know."

"That was great listening to you talk to her. " He admits. "I don't know if I've ever heard you talk to her so much."

"I think that was the most I've talked to her. I need to do it more." I conclude.

"You should. It can't hurt." He points out as he creeps down closer to my stomach. "Hi angel. It's daddy." I smile at this. "I just want you to know that I love you and mommy loves you too. You have a really great mommy. She's smart, she's beautiful, and she can't wait to see you. We'll see you in a few months." He kisses my stomach then gets back up. "By the way, she told me she knows you're a really great mommy."

I blush at that. "Logan…"

"What? I'm not lying. That's what she said."

"If you say so."

"I do." He gives me another kiss. "I missed this. Right now since I came back was the first time I've gotten to kiss you all day. It's been pure torture."

"Pure torture?" I ask as I head out of the baby's room and into our room.

"Yes." He kisses me again. "I love you so much, Rory."

"I love you too, Logan."

"Are you ready to go?" He asks.

"Just about." I tell him. "I have something I need to do." I tell him as I get my laptop from the living room and head to my desk in our office. I go in and hook up the printer to it. I type up a proposal for Logan. We have to reach a common ground as far as work goes. It doesn't take long to type it up. I review it, print it, and then sign it. I fold it in half and stick it in the book I've been reading. I'll give it to him later on the plane. I close the word program and unhook the printer.

"Ace!" Logan calls from the living room.

"Yeah?"

"We need to get moving! Are you coming?"

I come out carrying my book and my laptop. "Yeah. I'm here. Did you get the suitcases?" I ask as the phone starts to ring.

He nods. "Yeah."

"Did you want to get that?" I ask and he shakes his head.

"Nah, let the machine pick it up."

Two rings later, it does pick up. "Hi, you've reach Rory," I say, "And Logan." He adds. "And we can't come to the phone right now." I say and then Logan says. "Because we're out shopping for the baby. Leave us a message though," and then I add. "And we'll get back to you as soon as we can. Bye."

"Hello, Rory, Logan." Logan frowns when he hears his dad's voice. "I know it's been awhile since we talked but your mother and I have received some news and it is rather urgent that we speak to you. Your sister has told me that you will be back in town for a few days…"

"We need to have a talk with her apparently." Logan remarks and I roll my eyes.

"Please call us as soon as possible. Thank you. Goodbye."

I glance over at him. "What do you want to do?"

"Nothing right now. Come on. We need to go make the flight."

We make it to the airport with 45 minutes to spare however by the time we get through security and board the plane, there's probably 10 minutes left before we take off.

"Are you OK?" Logan asks me after we take our seats in first class.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I take a seat near the aisle.

"Do you want your book?" He asks and I nod. "Yes, please."

He gets the book out of my carryon and hands it to me and the proposal I had typed up falls out.

"Thank you." I tell him as he reaches down and grabs the sheet.

"So what's this?" He asks as he sits down and holds the folded paper up.

"Read it." I urge him. "It's something I typed up. This is our truce."

"Our truce?" He raises an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yes and it's non-negotiable so you're going to agree to it."

"Rory…" I know that tone.

"Logan, just open the damn paper and read it, will you? It's non-negotiable because we both get what we want. Just read it." I tell him as I open to my book-marked page of "What to Expect When You're Expecting".

So he flips it open and proceeds to read it out loud. It is in a quiet voice though.

"I, Rory Huntzberger, hereby promise that from now until the end of my pregnancy that I will not work more than 8 hours a day." I can see he looks surprised. I can only see him from the corner of my eye but I can still tell.

"Keep reading." I tell him so he does.

"If I decide to come in early, I will also leave early. This agreement goes into effect immediately and will not expire until six months I have the baby. And then you signed it." He notices. "Did you get it notarized?"

"Do not push your luck, Huntzberger." I grumble and he laughs.

"I'm just kidding, Ace." He leans over and kisses me.

"This is the way that things are going to need to be. You can't keep me restricted to certain hours, Logan because very soon I'm going to be starting Lamaze and that could be playing a factor in the hours that I work."

"OK." He nods. "That's a good point. I have no problem agreeing to this as long as you're serious about it."

"Of course I'm serious about it. I signed it." I remind him. "So are we in agreement then?" I extend my hand to him and he shakes it. He doesn't let go of it, though, when I try to pull it back. "What are you doing?"

"Well, now that we've shaken on it, let's kiss on it." He tells me.

"Excuse me…just what kind of employee do you take me for?" I tease him.

"The kind that I'm married to." He gives me a kiss and I laugh. He gives me another one but I pull away a second later.

"What?" He looks at me concerned.

I wait a second to see if it happens again. When it does, my face breaks out into a huge grin. "Oh my god, that is so incredible." I whisper.

"Ace, what are you talking about?" He asks as I grab his hand and put it on my stomach.

"Give it a second." I tell him.

"Rory…" I think that he doesn't think I'm serious.

"Shh…wait." I whisper. "We'll see if she does it again." We have to wait about 30 seconds before Logan gets to feel his daughter kick and after he feels it, he starts laughing. I join in then.

"It's pretty cool, isn't it?" I ask him.

"It's beyond cool, Ace." He says as he kisses me while his hand is still on my stomach.

**

* * *

It's so amazing feeling my daughter kick. And that she let me feel her kick. It took her a few minutes but she let me. I think I saw Rory start to relax finally. I am surprised that she never brought up how much it was bothering her that the baby hadn't started kicking yet. When I came home, I called her name and she didn't hear me, I got worried for a second. I made my way to the back where our bedrooms are and I heard her talking to the baby. I stood in the doorway and watched as she quietly rocked back and forth in the rocking chair.**

"We've been through a lot together, you and I." She whispers to her. "It wasn't easy in the beginning, was it? You were such a surprise to us and then we almost lost you."

My heart sinks at that. I know she's about to start crying. I almost go over to her then but I decide to wait. "It was the scariest thing I've ever had to live through. It was very scary for daddy too."

That's an understatement. Terrified is more like it.

"You've got a great daddy." She tells her and I smile. It's nice to hear her say that considering that 6 ½ hours ago she couldn't have cared less about my feelings. "He's kind, he's sweet, he's handsome, and he's my rock." Honestly she's my rock too. "He's been so strong through all the rough times we've went through. There have been a lot of them unfortunately. We haven't talked to daddy's mommy and daddy in a couple of months."

I am a little surprised to hear her mention my parents. Then again, maybe I'm not.

"Daddy's been strong but I think he wishes that things were different. I know I do. I want your grandma and grandpa to be head over heels in love with you like we are. Maybe in the future they will be. Your aunt Honor is though. She's daddy's sister." I grin at that. "You really do have a great daddy. I know you may be wondering if he is because I'm sure you heard the yelling earlier but daddy is just looking out for you. I should have listened to him." My mouth falls open at that. Did she really just say that? "I just want you to know that I love you so much, sweetie. I love you, daddy loves you. We can't wait to see you. You know I was kind of hoping that maybe you would start kicking for me but I guess you're not going to. You're probably still getting used to hearing my voice. If daddy was here and you heard his voice, I'm sure you'd be kicking then."

I frown at that. I honestly don't believe that would make any difference at all.

"I think you daddy's voice better than mine."

Oh, no, I can't let her believe something that is honestly a blatant lie. "That's silly, Rory and you know it." I know I startled her. I did my best to keep her calm. I'm so glad she's talking to me again. I really hate it when we fight.

Then there's the fact that my dad called. He chooses to wait and call almost 2 months later. I can't deal with him right now. As selfish and cold as it sounds right now, I really don't care what his "urgent" news is. The only things I'm really focused on right now are Rory, our baby and Lorelai and her baby. They're the focus of this trip.

By the time we arrive in Stars Hollow and at Rory's house, it's just after 3 in the morning. I'm half carrying her. She had fell asleep on the plane and then also on the way to her house. I lay her down on her bed and then head out to the rental car to get the luggage. I carry everything into the bedroom and head back to the lock the door. Rory's fast asleep.

"Ace…" I whisper to her.

"Hmm…?" She mumbles.

"Are you going to change?"

"Can't move. I'll sleep in my regular clothes."

"Do you want me to help you change?" I ask and she shakes her head.

"I'm OK. Thank you, though."

I change out of my clothes and crawl under the covers. I give Rory a kiss goodnight and shut off the light. I set my alarm on my cell phone for 7am. Not going to be getting much sleep but it'll be OK. It's going to be slightly reminiscent of my partying days.

The next thing I know my cell phone alarm is going off. I shut it off and then notice that Rory is not beside me. I swing my feet over the bed and peek outside. She's at the kitchen table sipping coffee and eating a muffin. Apparently she's stopped by Luke's this morning already.

"Hey." I lean down and kiss her. "Good morning."

"Good morning. Did you sleep OK?"

I nod. "Yeah, I slept fine. How long have you been up?"

"Since 5:30."

I grab one of the coffees. "Really?"

"I got more sleep than you." She reasons. "I just got done talking to Luke. Mom got induced at 6:30 this morning. Do you think you can be ready to go by 8?" She asks.

"Yeah, I should be." I grab a blueberry muffin.

We're out the door at just before 8 and get to Hartford at 8:30. I know Rory's been anxious to see her mom. As soon as we get to Lorelai's room, Rory rushes to her mom. "Hey." She gives her a huge hug. Right now it's just them in the room; Lorelai has a private room.

"Hi Hun." She tells her. "Hey Logan."

"Hi Lorelai, Luke."

"Hi Logan, Rory." Luke says.

"How are you doing, mom?"

"OK right now. Then again, hard labor hasn't started just yet." We laugh and then she asks Rory. "Are you coming into the delivery room?"

Rory frowns. "Is that allowed? I mean, can you have more than 1 person in the delivery room?"

"Sure I cleared it with the doctor. He's fine with it."

Rory looks over at me. She's looking a little unsure if she wants to go in which honestly I'm surprised at. I figured she would be jumping at the chance to go in. "Yeah, I would love to be in there with you." She squeezes her mom's hand and Lorelai grins.

"Good." She tells her.

"So how was your flight?" Luke asks.

"Good." I tell them.

"Great." Rory corrects me then grins.

"OK so do I want to know what that look is for?" Lorelai asks.

"The baby started kicking on the flight." I tell them and Lorelai's face breaks out into a huge grin.

"That's great."

"Yeah, it felt so amazing." Rory gushes and I grin. "It sure did."

"So the baby let you feel her kicking?" Luke asks.

"It took her a little time but yeah she did."

"What's 'a little time'?" He asks.

"Probably 30 seconds to a minute after I put my hand on Rory's stomach."

"Great. That's just great. Our kid hates me, Lorelai." Luke concludes and we're eager to protest.

"No, Luke I'm sure that's not it." Lorelai tells him.

"Luke, that's not it. Logan is attached to my stomach every free second he gets talking to her. He's talked to her more than I've even directly talked to her. I think she knows his voice better than she knows mine."

"And I told you that's silly, Ace."

"Regardless. I'm sure that my brother or sister is going to love you." Rory assures him.

The nurse comes in to check on Lorelai and I make my exit to get coffee. Rory stays in with her mom. She comes out a few minutes later and tells me that she's already 6 centimeters dilated.

"She's well on her way. It probably won't be too much longer before she goes to the delivery room." She tells me as I hand her a coffee.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure." She looks at me curiously.

"You seemed surprised that she wanted you in the delivery room with her. Why?"

"I didn't think she could have more than one person in there with her." She tells me.

"No, I think it's something else." I grin at her. "Is there something worrying you about going in there with her?"

"Well it's just a little scary, Logan."

"I hate to inform you of this, Ace but I think when you have the baby may be a lot scarier."

Yeah, that didn't put her at ease based on the glare she's giving me. Then again I didn't think it really would put her at ease. "Look, if you don't want to be in there, tell her you're not ready for it."

She shakes her head. "No, I'm OK. I'll be fine."

At 10 o'clock I see a girl make her way down the hall. She's got long brown hair and glasses.

"Hi Rory." She says to Rory.

Rory was taking a sip of her coffee. "Oh, April hi." Ahh..that's right; this is Luke's daughter. "How are you?"

"I'm doing very well." She tells her. "How are you? How's your mom?"

"She seems to be doing good. I'm doing good, our baby's doing good." She looks over at me then. "Do you remember Logan, my husband?"

"It's nice to see you again, April." I shake her hand.

"You too."

"Mom and Luke are in room 373. It's a couple doors down."

"OK." She nods. "I'll be back in a few minutes." She takes off down the hall.

"How old is she?" I ask Rory.

"I think like 14."

"She acts so much older than that."

"I know." She nods.

Rory heads with Lorelai into the delivery room at 1. Luke had checked to make sure that April would be fine in the waiting room along with the rest of us and she had no complaints. She really doesn't know any of us as far as I know. Well, except for maybe Sookie. She might know her the best out of everyone. It was me, April, Richard and Emily, and Sookie that were in the waiting room.

At 1:37pm Lorelai gave birth to a little baby boy. He weighed 7lbs, 5 ounces. Rory came out of the room at quarter to 2 and threw her arms around me and gave me a huge hug.

"He's so cute!" She gushes.

"Well, that's great, Ace. How's your mom doing?"

"Good. I know that she's exhausted, though. We'll be able to go in and see them soon."

"Did they say what they were going to name him?" Sookie asks and Rory shakes her head.

"She never told me."

Luke comes out a few minutes later and gives Rory, Sookie and April hugs.

"How's Lorelai?" Sookie asks.

"She's doing good. Would you all like to see him?"

We all eagerly follow Luke into the room. Lorelai has already been back for a few minutes. The baby is wrapped tightly in a pale blue blanket. He's got a blue cap on his head.

"Would you like to hold him, April?" Luke asks her and she eagerly nods. She sits down in the chair next to the window and Luke carefully hands him to her.

"You're so cute!" She tells him and we laugh.

We talk to Lorelai for about 10 minutes and then Rory and I and April leave. I think everyone's going to be making their departures soon. We're going to come back after she's had some time to rest. We're going to get something to eat. Luke's actually going to join us too. I know that Rory told me that he hadn't seen April at all until she was at the hospital. We're not going to be having a big lunch though because I do have plans for tonight. After all, it is still Valentine's Day.

**

* * *

My little brother is adorable! My mom did so good through her labor. Luke took all the thinly veiled threats of how he's never touching her again in stride. They decided to call him Ayden. Ayden Lucas Danes. He's got lots of dark brown hair and deep blue eyes.**

Logan and I decide to head home after lunch. Logan has not given me many details other than he's got a romantic night planned for us. And he also told me that we wouldn't be staying in Stars Hollow tonight. We take a nap for a couple of hours. It's been a long couple of days and I know that Logan didn't sleep on the plane like I did.

I'm standing in front of my mirror putting on my makeup . I'm wearing a royal blue satin cocktail dress. Logan comes in from taking a shower and sees me as I'm finishing up.

"You look gorgeous." He tells me. "However, you are wearing the wrong dress."

"What are you talking about?"

"You're wearing blue on Valentine's Day." He notices. "That's just wrong."

"Logan, it's the only dress I packed."

"But it's not the dress that I packed." He tells me as he hands me a garment bag.

"What did you do, Logan?" I ask as I stare at the bag.

"What do you mean 'what did I do'? I bought you a dress."

"You didn't need to do that, Logan." I tell him. "As sweet as that is, my guess is that it'll be too small due to my ever expanding stomach."

"It's not too small." He argues.

"Why would you want to buy me a dress while I'm pregnant? I'm only going to be able to wear it once."

"I think you're looking for any excuse not to wear it and you haven't even seen it yet." Logan concludes.

"It's not that. I just know how you have a tendency to go overboard and you're not sure that this dress is even going to fit."

"No, I'm sure it's going to fit. **You're** the one who's not sure. Even after almost 4 years together you still don't think that I pay attention to the little details. How about giving your husband a little bit of credit, Ace."

He's right; he does pay attention to everything, including the small stuff. He's very good about that. "You're right; I'm sorry." I give him a kiss.

"So try it on." He tells me as he opens the other garment bag and pulls out his tux.

"I was thinking it was odd that you were carrying 2 garment bags." I tell him.

"What, did you think I brought back more than 1 suit?"

"I wasn't sure." I tell him honestly.

"OK, time to quit stalling. Try it on."

I open the bag and there is a beautiful ruby colored silk organza layered gown. "Oh my god, Logan!" I gasp. "That's gorgeous." I take it out and examine it. I go ahead and change out of my dress I have on and put on the other one. Logan has to help me zip it up. I look in the mirror and beam. It looks amazing.

Logan grins. "Words can't describe how incredible you look."

"Thank you." I blush.

"See? Was I right? It fits you great."

"Yes, you were right." I smile. "It's really comfortable too."

"That's just as important as how it looks." He informs me.

"That's very true."

"So are you ready to go?"

"Whenever you are."

When we walk outside, I see that Logan must have called his old driver, Frank because I see him standing beside the limo.

"Good evening, Ma'am." Frank says with a smile.

"Oh hi Frank." I shake his hand. "How are you?"

"Very well. How are you?"

"We're doing good."

Frank opens the door for us and I get in first. Once we're in the limo and on the road, Logan turns to me as he reaches in his tuxedo pocket and gives me a neatly wrapped present.

"Here you go, Ace. Happy Valentine's Day."

"Logan," I sigh. "as sweet as you are to buy all this stuff, you're spending entirely too much." I argue.

"Nonsense. I could never spend too much on you." He tells me. "Open it."

I open it up and gasp. It's a beautiful pearl ring with diamonds on the sides.

"Do you like it?"

"Of course. It's gorgeous."

"Now I did some looking up and pearls are the birthstone for June." He explains.

Ahh…this is always going to be special every time I look at it. He got me the ring in celebration of our daughter. "That's very sweet of you, Logan. Thank you." I give him a kiss. "It makes me feel guilty that I didn't get you anything."

"You don't need to get me anything." He insists. "You're giving me a daughter. That's good enough for me."

I laugh. "That's like the most incredibly cheesy line ever."

"I'm serious." He tells me as he take out the ring and puts it on my right ring finger.

"It won't be long before my rings are too tight to wear." I twist the ring around to make it a little more comfortable.

"We'll have to find you a chain and you can wear them around your neck."

"Sounds good." I give him a longer kiss then. "Thank you Logan."

"You're welcome, Ace."

My surprise was in New York City and going to a show on Broadway and having dinner at One if by Land, Two if by Sea. I'm pretty surprised that Logan wanted to go to a Broadway show. Then again, he does a lot of things that surprise me.

The night concludes with a stay at the Millennium Broadway Hotel. After we check in, we ride up to the penthouse floor. Logan open the door and I gaze around. The room looks amazing.

"You've outdone yourself once again, Logan Huntzberger."

He grins at me.

"You're a true romantic." I declare.

"Have you known me to be anything else?" He raises an eyebrow.

"Oh, you're a lot of things, Logan." I grin at him. "You're pretty lucky all of them are good." I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him.

"You know, since you mentioned lucky…" He smirks at me as I feel him reach around and start to drag my zipper down.

"Wait."

He frowns at me. "What?"

I unhook my arms from his neck and rush over to the door and put on the 'do not disturb' sign on it. I then lock the door.

"Smart thinking." He smirks.

"I thought so." I wrap my arms around his neck again. "Now where were we?"

He grins at me as he goes ahead and finishes dragging my zipper down. I step out of the dress and let it pool on the floor. I then go to work removing Logan's jacket and tie.

"I love you." I tell him.

"Love you too Ace." He kisses me as he lays me down on the bed.

It's quarter after 11 when we finish. The room is dark and we're under the covers. I am glad that Logan did pack our clothes for tomorrow. I really didn't want to show up at the hospital in an evening gown. I look over at him and he's got the strangest look on his face. It's not a bad one though.

"What?"

"Nothing." He tells me as he strokes my hair. "I'm just thinking."

"About what?"

"Just how happy I am. Things have been going great, don't you think?"

I nod. "Yeah, they have."

"I don't remember the last time I was this happy."

"I'm pretty sure I do." I inform him. "My guess is when you proposed."

"That's true. The baby would be the next happiest." He reveals. "Are you happy?"

"Words can't describe how happy I am. I've got a great husband, our baby has started to make her presence known, and I've got a cute little brother."

"Life is good." Logan concludes as I yawn. "Getting tired?"

"Yeah; kind of. It's been a long day."

"That it has." He nods as he kisses me. "Goodnight, Ace."

"Goodnight Logan. I love you."

"I love you too Rory."

I drift off to sleep and when I wake up, it's 7:30. I want to be on the road by 9. I call and order room service. I wake Logan up as soon as the food arrives.

"Good morning." I give him a kiss.

"Morning, Ace." He sits up. "Did you sleep good?"

"Yeah, I did. I slept great. How about you?" I pour us each a cup of coffee.

"Yeah I did." He gets up and gives me a kiss. "Be right back." He heads into the bathroom. I take a seat on the bed and grab a plate from the cart that has scrambled eggs on it. I take a couple bites of it and realize I didn't pour any orange juice. I go ahead and pour two glasses then continue to eat.

Logan returns a few minutes later. We talk about plans for today. I want to spend the today at the hospital with mom but he asked me if he minded if he stayed in town with Colin and Finn.

"Just come by later after you're done visiting your mom. It's just been before Christmas since I had seen them last."

I smile. "Sure. I understand. "

Logan heads to Colin and Stephanie's apartment and I head back to Stars Hollow. Yeah, it was pretty interesting hearing Colin talk about moving in with her. I figured it would take longer. Maybe he took what I told him about Steph wanting the bouquet toss rigged to heart. I did do it and she did catch it. Maybe he's ready to follow through and think about marriage. Then of course there's Finn. From what Logan tells me, he's gotten extremely serious about Kelly. So much so, Logan thinks that Finn's in love with her. Finn hasn't confirmed for us whether or not he's told her though.

I get back to Stars Hollow around 11. I drop my stuff off and decide to check the messages. Lots of well wishes from everyone but then there's a message that shocks me:

"Hello, Rory, it's Mitchum." How the hell did he get our home number? Oh, yeah, I guess he could have looked it up in the phone book. "I'm not sure if you or Logan got my message I left for you at our condo but I really need to talk to both of you. It's extremely urgent that you get back to me as soon as possible. Please give me a call. Thank you. Goodbye."

I call Logan then and tell him that his dad called again.

"What do you mean he called again?" He asks. "Did you check our messages at home?"

"No, I checked the messages at my home. He called mom's phone."

"Why?"

"I don't know, Logan." I sigh. "What do you want me to do?"

"You can do whatever you want." He tells me. "I'm not picking up my phone for him. It seems he called my cell phone about 7 times yesterday."

"He's not going away, Logan."

"Eventually he'll get the message, Rory." I internally groan at that. "If you want to talk to him, you can but I'm not going to." He adamantly tells me. "I really don't care what his news is. I think it's just another excuse to get me to call him."

I sigh. This really is an uphill battle with him. "OK. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I'm going to spend some time with my mom and decide."

"OK. Give me a call when you're heading to the city, OK?"

"Will do. Love you."

"Love you too, Ace. Bye."

I hang up and sigh. I don't know what to do. I'm questioning whether or not Mitchum is serious about his "urgent news" or if Logan's right and it really is just a way he's trying to worm his way back into our lives. I can't think about that right now. Right now my main priority is mom and Ayden.

I get to the hospital shortly before noon. I knock before I head into her room. She looks tired but otherwise she's doing good. She's nursing Ayden right now. It's only her in the room. I don't think Luke has gotten used to breastfeeding just yet. She had momentarily stopped to see who was here and then resumed feeding him after I came in and closed the door.

"So how are you feeling?" I ask her as I take a seat by her bed.

"Good. Still tired but I'm good, hun. How are you doing?"

"Good." I smile.

"Ooo…" She glances at my right hand where my new ring is. "that's pretty." She comments. "Is that your Valentine's day present?"

I nod. "Yeah, it is. Logan had done some research and found that pearls were the June birthstone."

"Ahh…that's sweet. He got you the ring that will have the baby's birthstone."

I grin for a second then it fades.

"What's wrong?" She looks at me concerned and I sigh.

"It's nothing. Mitchum called our condo before we left and he actually left us a message on our home phone in Stars Hollow last night. We haven't called him back."

"Did he say what he wanted?" She asks and I shake my head.

"No, just that it's urgent."

"What does Logan say?"

"He told me I can call him back if I want but he's not talking to him."

"He just needs time, Rory."

"I know he does but I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place."

I spend the next few hours sitting beside my mom talking to her. Every once in awhile, someone will pop in. My mom told me that Sookie and Jackson came by, along with Miss Patty and Babette and Morey. I had talked to Lane and she's going to visit when they get home.

I head out to the waiting room and get a Coke from the machine and I turn around and see Mitchum and Shira heading down the hallway. They don't see me. I see them meet with who I assume is a doctor because he's in a white coat and head into a room. This is going to bug me now. I decide to head back to my mom's room.

"Ror, what's wrong?" She's noticing my expression as soon as I walk in.

"I just saw Mitchum and Shira head into a room with a doctor."

"The mystery continues. Why don't you go see what's going on?"

"Umm…not just yet. I will but I want to spend my time with my brother." I tell her. "Can I hold him?"

She grins. "Of course you can."

I spend a good half an hour holding my little brother. Part of the time he has his eyes open but most of the time he's sleeping.

There's a knock on the door at 3:20. Mom calls for them to come in and I see Mitchum come through the door. My face is just in shock.

"Mitchum…" Mom says quietly. "Hello."

"Hello, Lorelai. Congratulations."

"Umm…" She's speechless. "thank you."

"Do you think it would be possible if I talked to Rory for a moment?"

She looks at me and I get up to hand my brother back to her. "Sure. Go ahead."

"I'll be back in a little bit, mom."

"OK." I kiss Ayden's forehead and head out of the room with Mitchum.

"So…how's my grandchild?" He asks me. I'm surprised he didn't jump into why we haven't called him.

"She's doing good."

He turns to look at me. "She?"

I smile. "Yes, we found out we're having a girl."

"That's great news, Rory."

"Thank you."

"And how's my son?" He seemed a little hesitant when he asks this.

"He's doing good. Work's good, and he's ecstatic that we're having a girl. He spends all of his free time talking to her." I tell him.

"That's great that he's doing that."

"How did you know I was here?" I ask him.

"Honor told me where your mom was at and I figured that you would be here."

There's a brief pause. "So did you receive my messages?"

I slowly nod. "Yeah, we got the one that you left us at our condo but we were rushing out to make our flight and I heard your message this morning when I got home. Logan and I were in New York last night."

"I was thinking that you were just ignoring them."

I sigh. "It's not that. He's not there yet, Mitchum." I tell him. "He told me that I could call you and find out what's going on but he's not ready to talk to you yet. I saw you and Shira head with a doctor somewhere but I decided to wait a little while before I talked to you because I wanted to spend some time with my brother."

"I understand. I was wondering whether or not you could come with me into the doctor's office." I frown at that. OK, what the hell is going on here?

"What's going on, Mitchum?"

"Rory, would you please come with me? It would be better if the doctor explained things."

"OK." I slowly nod. I walk into the doctor's office and see a gray haired man in his 60's sitting down at his desk. Shira is sitting in one of chairs, looking extremely somber. I don't know if I've ever seen her with this expression on her face. Honor is in another chair and her face is really red. I don't know if it's from anger or sadness but based on Shira's expression my guess is sadness. I greet Honor with a hug and ask if she's OK and she very slowly nods. This is starting to freak me out.

"Doctor West, this is Rory, my daughter in law." I shake his hand.

"It's nice to meet you, Rory. Will your husband be joining us?" I look around at all of them and slowly shake my head.

"No, he's not in town at the moment." I look at all of them and everyone is extremely quiet. "Could someone please tell me what's going on?"

"Rory, I am Shira's oncologist." Dr. West informs me.

I process that word for a second. Oncologist. Oh my god. "Cancer?" I look around at all of them.

"Yes, we had recently ran some tests and have determined that Shira has Stage 3A breast cancer."

Oh my god is the only thing that's running through my head right now. How am I going to tell Logan this? "So what exactly does that mean?"

"Stage 3 breast cancer has two types, A and B. A, the type that Shira has, means that the tumor is larger than 2 centimeters but smaller than 5 centimeters. It also means that the cancer has spread to up to 9 underarm lymph nodes."

Wow! I just can't believe what I'm hearing. "So what are the treatment options?" I ask quietly.

"That's been discussed and I really think the best course of action is a mastectomy followed by chemotherapy and radiation." He tells me.

I can't even think straight. There's going to be no way that I'm going to be able to drive to New York now. I think I'll try and call Frank and see if he can drive me to New York. I look around the room then. Josh is comforting Honor is sobbing uncontrollably, Mitchum is being very solemn, and Shira looks demure. I stare at her for a moment. Even after the way she's treated me, I can't help but feel pity for her.

"Rory…are you OK?" The doctor asks me.

I slowly nod. "Yeah, I'm fine. Listen, Doctor, do you have a business card?"

"Yes, of course." He hands me one from his desk. "Please let me know if you have any questions."

"I can pretty much guarantee you'll probably be getting a call from my husband." I tell them quietly. I look around and rise from the chair I was sitting in. "Excuse me, I need to go make a call to him."

I rush out of the room and while in the hallway, I take a deep breath. This is so unbelievable. I have no idea how I'm going to tell him this. I punch in his speed dial and I get his voicemail. I frown.

"Hey." I whisper. "It's me. I'm on my way to New York now. I'm having Frank drive me in the limo there. I really don't think it would be wise for me to drive right now. Why the hell is your ringer off, Logan? We need to talk about that. I'll give you a call when I'm close to the city to find out where you are. Call me when you get this, OK? Bye." I look up and I see everyone exiting out of the room.

"Were you able to get ahold of him?" Mitchum asks me and I shake my head.

"No, his ringer's off." I tell him. "I left him a message." I look over at Shira."I now get to spend a car ride to New York figuring how to break the news to Logan."

"I'm sure that hearing this news made you happy." She finally speaks and I stare at her in disbelief.

"Even with everything that's happened between us, Shira, I have never wished you would get cancer. I don't wish that diagnosis on any one." I inform her quietly. I then turn to my sister in law who is on the verge of breaking down again. I give her a big hug.

"Are you going to be OK?" I ask.

"I tried to get ahold of Logan earlier too but he didn't answer for me either." She reveals.

"I'm really sorry, Honor. He's in New York with Colin and Finn. I have no clue where. Are you going home tonight?"

She shakes her head. "I'm going to stay at my parents' house tonight."

I nod. "OK, well, we'll be back in New York tomorrow. How about we come stay with you and Josh tomorrow night? I know that Logan is going to want to see you and I think it would be good for the two of you to be together while we're still here."

"OK." She nods. "Thank you, Rory." She gives me a hug.

I do tell Mitchum to keep me informed on what's going on with the treatment details including when Shira is going in for surgery. I then head down the hallway to see my mom. Luke is back in the room along with April and my grandparents. My grandma is holding the baby.

"Hi." I crack a smile.

"You were gone a long time." My mom makes note. "Everything OK?"

I shake my head. "No, they're not. Listen, I have to head to New York to find Logan. He's got his cell phone off and he's not picking up and he has to know what his parents' news was."

"Ror, are you going to be OK?"

"I'm not sure; I hope so." I admit.

"Are you driving? With the mood you're in, I don't think it's safe." Luke comments and I shake my head.

"No, I'm having the limo pick me up and take me to New York." I explain.

"Rory, what happened?" My grandpa asks.

"I'll tell all of you tomorrow. Logan has to hear this first, though. I need to go." I give my mom a hug and a kiss and rush out of the room.

About halfway to New York, I try Logan's cell phone again. Again he's got his ringer off. Damn him!

"Logan, turn your damn ringer back on." I grumble into his phone. "Why is it off? Look, I'm on my way to New York. I'm going to call Colin's cell phone to figure where you are. Bye."

I call Colin and he tells me they're just heading back from the bar and will be back in their apartment in 20 minutes. I've got at least 30 before I even make into New York so we're good.

This has been a very emotional trip. Lots of highs and lows. Not really the best thing when you're pregnant. Sure the highs are good but all it takes is for a low like this and it's hard to not let it affect you.

I make it to Steph and Colin's apartment at 6 o'clock. Everyone is sitting around drinking.

"Hey Rory." Steph comes rushing to me and gives me a huge hug.

"Hey Steph." I crack a smile. "Hi guys."

"Hello, love." Finn gives me a hug and a kiss. "You look beautiful, darling."

I sigh. "No, I don't; I look fat."

"Rory…" There's my husband's warning tone as he comes in from the kitchen and getting another drink.

"Hey what the hell happened to your cell phone?" I demand. I think I shocked them all by my tone.

"I turned my ringer off. My dad kept calling and it was getting irritating."

"Logan, what if something happened to the baby? Did you think about that?"

"But nothing happened to the baby, now did it?"

I groan. "That's not the point, Logan."

"So how's your little brother?" Steph asks.

"He's adorable." I gush. "He's got all of this dark hair and blue eyes." I tell them. "I held him for about half an hour." My gaze drifts over to my husband. "Then your dad found me."

Logan's expression goes flat. "What? My dad found you?"

I slowly nod. "Guys will you excuse us for a moment? We're going to head out to the balcony where I have to give Logan some news."

"Why do you have to go outside?" Finn asks. "Just go in one of the other rooms here."

"Because he's going to start yelling and protesting and thinking that I'm making up what I'm going to tell him and I don't think that you should all have to hear that."

"Oh come on, Rory." Logan starts to say and I cut him off.

"Trust me, I know you better than you think I do. Come on." I head to the balcony door. "We'll be back guys."

I look out to the city and take a huge breath in and slowly exhale. "Do you remember last night how you were telling me how happy you were?"

"Yeah?"

"I wish we could go back to that." I tell him.

"Say the word and I'll make the reservation at the hotel." He grins but he notices that I'm not. "Rory, what is it?"

"I really wish you would have picked up the phone today, Logan."

"I told you why I didn't."

"Logan, you were getting probably more calls from Honor than your dad." I tell him. "I think she really needed to hear your voice."

He looks at his phone then. He notices there has been 12 missed calls: 2 from me, three from his dad, and 7 were from Honor. He's staring at me. "Rory, what's going on?"

"Logan, I met with Dr. West. He's your mom's oncologist."

He stares at me for several seconds. "What?"

"Logan, your mom has Stage 3 breast cancer."

* * *

**I know cliffhanger, right? Well, this is being carried over into the sequel. I did a lot of research on breast cancer. I had no idea there were different levels within the stages. I kind of put this in as kind of a karma thing. Anybody have an opinion on what the outcome should be? Also with the baby kicking, I was a little off on the time period that she should have started kicking. If it truly was going to be around Valentine's Day, the due date would be more at the end of June, not the middle like I have it. Also I know it was probably pretty silly to have Lorelai have the baby on Valentine's day but my niece was born on Valentine's day and my cousin had her son on that day too. Anyway, hope the wait was worth it. The next chapter is going to be the conclusion of this chapter. I'm sure you're all curious about Logan's reaction. Anyway, review please and also make sure to mention if you think Lorelai should be the 1st name or the middle name.**


	32. Author's Note 2

Hey! I just wanted to let you all know I'm working on the chapter right now but I went ahead and I'm doing a couple polls. I want you all to go vote for what should happen with the story, OK? There's two of them and apparently I can't post them at the same time. I 'm writing about Logan and his parents right now so I'm opening that one until the chapter is done. Then I have one where you can vote if Lorelai should be the 1st name or middle name. That one will be open as soon as the chapter is done unless any of you know how I can post both of them at the same time.

Please go vote! I'm keeping these open longer than the wedding dress one I did. I only kept that open for a week. I'm sure the chapter is going to take me longer than a week to write. It'll be up to you as for what happens with Logan and his parents and also where Lorelai's name is going to be for Logan and Rory's baby.

Thanks for doing this!

Mandy


	33. Perfect World Shattered

**Honestly, I think I did rather well timewise with this. I only took 2 1/2 weeks to write it. So as you know this is going to be Logan's reaction to the news about his mom. Here's what I'm thinking for the rest of the story: Rory's baby shower in Stars Hollow will be the next chapter, Rory and Logan's baby will be born in the one after that then an epilogue. There's a lot of Logan and Honor together in this chapter. I always did like how those two always relied on each other. Anyway, please review and please go to the poll and vote on Rory's baby's name. I closed the other poll a couple days ago. Even if you don't review please go to my profile and vote. There were 31 votes as far as when Logan will make up with his parents. And the results were...nah, I won't do that to you. Maybe you'd want it to be a surprise. If you want to know how it turned out let me know in a review and I'll tell you. Anyway, please review!**

* * *

My mind is a blur. I'm still trying to comprehend what my wife just told me. An oncologist? But that's a doctor that handles cancer issues, isn't it? This doesn't make sense so I have her repeat what she just said.

"What?"

"Logan, your mom has Stage 3 breast cancer."

Oh my god. This isn't real, is it? This is a nightmare, right? "No, they made that up." I start to protest. "My dad just made that up to get me to talk to him again."

"Logan…" Rory starts.

"No, Rory my dad made that up! He lied to you." I argue. "He's resorting to concocting this stupid story…"

"Logan, I didn't hear it from your dad. I heard it directly from the doctor. I really don't think your dad would resort to doing that. Not after seeing the way your mom and your sister looked. Your mom was very quiet and Honor was near hysterics."

Hearing that makes me really sad. I've never seen my sister cry that much. Yeah, I really wish I would have picked up the phone. I'm looking at Rory and she looks like she wants to start crying.

"I think your mom thought that I would be overjoyed at the news." She tells me quietly. "I think she was surprised when I wasn't."

Actually I am a little surprised she isn't happier. Then again, that's not Rory's style. She may get mad but I know she would never take pleasure in someone else's pain.

I've been very quiet and I think that's making Rory anxious. That dream I had last night? The one where I was so happy and loved my life? That's gone right now. I mean, there's still a lot of great things in my life and for that I'm thankful but the "perfect world" image has been shattered.

"Logan…" She says quietly. "Are you OK?"

I honestly don't know how to answer that."I'm having a hard time believing this." I confess.

"I know." She nods as she reaches into her purse and produces a card. "I got the doctor's business card. I told him that you would more than likely be calling him with some questions." She carefully hands it to me. I just stare at it. His name is Dr. Timothy West and he's the head of oncology.

"I told Honor we would spend tomorrow night with her." She tells me.

"Why not tonight? We're already in New York." I ask with a scowl on my face.

"She's staying with your parents tonight." She tells me. "I didn't think you would be ready for that."

She's right; I'm not. But I do need to be there for my sister. I feel really guilty that I wasn't.

"Logan…"

"Can you give me a second by myself, Ace? I just want to make a quick call to Honor."

She gives me a small smile and nods. Before she leaves though, she wraps her arms around me and gives me a huge hug. "I love you."

"I love you too Rory." I give her a kiss. "I'll be back in just a moment."

"OK." She nods and heads in.

I take out my Blackberry and call my sister. It takes several rings for her to pick up.

"Logan?" Her voice sounds hoarse.

"Yeah." I nod even though I know she can't see me. "It's me. I'm really sorry I didn't pick up when you called."

"What happened?"

"I turned my ringer off so I didn't have to hear dad calling me. You called more than he did I found out. Are you OK?"

There's a long pause. "I'm not sure how to answer that." She tells me.

"Do you want me to come stay with you tonight?"

"I'm at mom and dad's house, Logan." She tells me.

"I know but I would still come there if you wanted me to."

"That's sweet of you to offer but you don't have to." She says. "You and Rory will stay with us tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah, of course we will." I pause for a second. "So…this isn't a horrible nightmare, is it?"

"No." She whispers.

"We know for a fact that this doctor isn't lying?"

"Logan, if he was, I think he would have a hefty lawsuit on his hands. No, I think he's telling the truth. Mom has been extremely quiet and withdrawn. I don't think she would be that way unless it was the truth."

I don't know the last time I saw my mother that way. She's normally the exact opposite. She's normally very opinionated.

"Are you going to talk to the doctor?" She asks.

"I don't know." I tell her honestly.

"I think you should. I'll go with you if you want." She offers.

"Thanks. I'll think about it." I really do mean that. I can't run away from this. Part of me really wants to because I feel like I'm just going to get sucked in again. But I need to be strong for my wife and my sister.

Even with everything that has happened, I've never wished that my mom would get cancer. I do believe in karma, though. With as much as she smokes, I am surprised it wasn't lung cancer. Regardless, I still never wished it on her.

I finish talking to Honor a few minutes later and head back inside. Everyone's sitting around the kitchen table playing cards.

Rory looks up then everyone else does. "Everything OK?"

I nod. "Yeah." I pause for a second. "Did you tell them?"

"No I wasn't sure if you wanted me to. I figured I'd let you tell them."

"What's going on, Logan?" Colin asks.

I sigh. "Rory found out today that my mom has stage 3 breast cancer." There's a look of shock registering on all of their faces. Steph is the first one to leap up from her seat to give me a hug.

"Oh my god, Logan. I'm so sorry. Are you OK?"

"Yeah. I'm still adjusting to the news but I'm OK. I'm more worried about my sister."

"Is Honor OK?" Finn asks.

"She's trying to be brave but I can tell she's having a hard time. I did offer to go…there tonight." I reveal.

"Really?" Rory raises an eyebrow.

I nod. "Yeah, I told her I'd do it for her but she declined."

"That was nice of you to do that." Rory smiles as she squeezes my hand. "Do you want to head back or hang out for awhile?"

"We should probably head back." I tell all of them. "We'll stop back in though. We'll be back tomorrow."

"OK." Colin says.

We say goodbye and I escort Rory out of the apartment. When we get into the elevator, I turn to her and ask. "Did you drive?"

She shakes her head. "No, I wasn't in the right frame of mind to be driving. Frank drove me."

"Do you want to stop by the hospital?" I ask her as we get off on the ground floor.

"Nah, it's OK. They'll be home tomorrow. I think we should just head back to Stars Hollow. Are you hungry?" Rory asks as we get into the limo.

"Not really." I look her over and smile. "I bet you probably are though. I'm sure the baby is."

"Yeah, we're getting there."

"Do you want to eat here or can you wait until we get back to Stars Hollow?"

"No, I can wait. It's not that far."

I stare at her for a second. I know she's had a busy day so I'm curious. "Did you have lunch?"

"Yeah." She nods.

"When?"

She shrugs. "I don't know. Like around noon."

I hit the button for the partition. "Hey Frank?"

"Yes sir?" He looks at me through the mirror.

"Stop through the nearest McDonalds, would you?"

"Yes, sir."

I close the partition and Rory starts to protest.

"Logan, it's really not that far."

"Ace, have you seen what time it is?"

She looks at her watch and her eyes grow wide. "I didn't realize that it had gotten so late. "

"Yeah, it has."

Half an hour later, after making a stop at a McDonalds we head back to Stars Hollow. When we're done, Rory actually ate all of her meal and part of mine.

"Do me a favor would you?" I tell her.

"Hmm…" She finishes off my fries.

"Next time when I tell you I'm not hungry, don't downplay how hungry you actually are, OK?"

"I actually didn't think I was this hungry." She admits.

"Well, the baby hasn't had food in 8 hours." I remind her. "Any time you're hungry, just tell me. Even if I'm not, we'll still get you food, OK?"

She nods.

"I want the baby to be healthy."

"I know. I want that too."

We get back to Stars Hollow shortly after 9. This day just needs to be over already. We really don't do much. I watch TV while Rory talks to Babette about Paul Anka. She's been taking care of him the last couple days. Rory comes back in about 15 minutes later.

"Tired?" She asks.

"Exhausted." I tell her.

"'Ready for bed' exhausted?" She asks.

"I'm getting there." I admit. "Wow! How sad is that? It's not even 10 o'clock yet."

"It's been an emotionally draining day." Rory concludes as she takes a seat next to me.

"Yeah, it has." I pause for a second. "I think I'm going to talk to the doctor."

"Really? I think that's really good." She tells me.

"Yeah, I need to find out more about this."

"I…um…did get some more information. It would still be a good idea to talk to the doctor, though."

"What else did you find out?"

"Well," She turns to me, "your mom has stage 3a breast cancer which means that the tumor in her breast in bigger than 2 centimeters but smaller than 5 centimeters. It also means it has affected up to 9 of her underarm lymph nodes."

So it's already started to spread, I realize. "Did he say anything about survival rate?" I ask and she shakes her head. "No he never mentioned statistics to me. He did talk about treatment, though."

"Which is what? Surgery?"

She nods. "Yes, that's part of it. Your mom is going to have a mastectomy."

"Oh god." I whisper.

"Then she'll have chemotherapy and radiation." She tells me.

"This is so unreal."

"I know; I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for."

"I know but I just meant I'm sorry that you have to go through this especially given where your relationship is currently at with them."

That's the part I'm currently wrestling with. 'What am I supposed to do with this, Rory? Am I just supposed to forget everything that's happened in the past? Does the fact that my mom has cancer mean that I'm supposed to forgive them?"

"I wish I had answers for you, Logan. I'm just as clueless as you are."

"I'm at a loss here." I conclude. "I'm not ready to forgive and forget yet."

"I know you're not. I don't expect you to. I think it would be smart to stay in town for your mom's surgery, though."

"Rory…"

"Logan, we don't have to do it for your parents but we should for Honor. You don't even have talk to your dad."

She's probably right; we should stay. More than likely if we head back, my mom would always stay on my mind. "Let's see what the doctor says as far as when the surgery's going to be then we can plan accordingly."

She nods. "Are you going to call him?"

"Yeah, tomorrow I will."

We head to bed at 10 but I don't fall asleep until after 11:30. There's too much going through my mind right now. It's a pretty restless sleep too.

I wake up at 8 and find out that Rory's already awake. When I head into the kitchen I see that she's left me a note saying that she went to Luke's to get food. She gets back about 10 minutes later.

"Hey." She comes in carrying a bag of muffins and 2 coffees. She sets them on the table.

"Hey." I give her a kiss.

"I won't even ask you how you slept because I know you really didn't." She informs me.

"Yeah, I had a lot on my mind. Sorry if I kept you awake."

"You really didn't. There's a lot going on in my mind too." Rory reveals as she takes a seat at the table and grabs a muffin from the bag. "She's not even my mom and the news is still really affecting me too."

"I am a little surprised to hear that."

"Why?" She raises an eyebrow. "Do you think I'd be overjoyed at the fact that your mom has a potential death sentence?"

I keep quiet.

"Of course I'm not happy about it, Logan. She's your mom. We've almost never seen eye to eye on things but I would never wish her dead or wish she never existed. The thing I keep running through my head is that if she never did exist, I wouldn't have you."

I crack a smile.

"I do silently thank god every day for that."

"Really?"

She nods.

It's time to change subjects. "What time is your mom getting out of the hospital?" I grab a muffin.

"Like an hour." She sips her coffee. "I figured I'd clean things up around here for her."

"That's a good idea." I tell her as I drink my coffee. "What do you want me to do?"

"You can take Paul Anka for a walk for me." She suggests. "It'll help me out so I can clean without him getting in the way."

I nod. "Sure."

We finish eating breakfast and I get dressed so I can take Paul Anka for his walk. As it turns out, Paul Anka walked me more than I walked him. It's nice out though at least. It's cold but it's not snowing. The sun's out so that helps. When I get back it's quarter after 9 and I arrive back to see Luke and Lorelai pulling in with the baby.

"Hey Logan." Luke says as he gets out of the driver's side.

"Hey Luke." I tell him as I see Lorelai come around carrying the baby in his seat. "Hey Lorelai."

"Hey Logan. What's going on?"

"Not much. Rory's cleaning so I took Paul Anka for his walk."

"Did he wear you out?" She grins.

"I wouldn't say that but it was a rather brisk walk."

She laughs then she must have noticed my expression. "Everything OK?"

"Umm…not really."

She frowns. "What's going on?"

"Did Rory tell you what's going on with my family?"

She shakes her head which surprises me because Rory tells her mom almost everything. "No, actually. She just came back to the room after talking to your dad and said she had to go find you. She said she'd tell me today. What's going on?"

"Let's go inside. It's getting pretty cold out here." I head inside with Lorelai following behind me.

"Hello?" Lorelai calls out and Rory comes out from the kitchen.

"Hey mom." She comes over and gives her a hug.

"Hey hun." She sets the baby car seat on the couch. "Wow! It looks great in here. Thank you for cleaning."

"Of course." Rory smiles as she sits down next to the baby. "Can I hold him?"

"Sure."

Rory gets him out of his car seat and he fusses a little but falls back asleep. I take a seat to the left of Rory. I have to smile at the image. In another 4 months, it'll be our baby she's holding.

"Do you want to hold him?" Rory asks me. Ahh…the dreaded question. I'm not sure if I'm ready to do that yet. I'll be brave…in a little while.

"Maybe later. I need to call Honor and also call the doctor."

"What doctor?" Lorelai asks. "What's going on?"

"Well, it turns out that what my dad wanted to talk to us about was that my mom has stage 3 breast cancer."

"Oh my god!" She gasps. "Are you OK?"

I sigh. "Honestly I'm still processing it. Umm…we're going to spend tonight with Honor and Josh. I need to call mom's oncologist and make an appointment to see him."

"Oh, OK. I understand. I'm really sorry, Logan." Lorelai tells me.

"Thanks." I turn to my wife and give her a quick kiss. "Ace, I'm going to go call the doctor to see if we can meet with him today."

"OK." She nods as she watches her little brother sleep in her arms.

I make a call to the doctor and he tells me that he would be able to meet with me at 2:30. I can't really tell much by his tone on the phone except he seemed a little…bewildered that I wanted to talk to him. I have no idea why that is unless my parents told him that they didn't expect me to call. It's strange considering Rory said I would. I then call Honor and let her know what's going on. She asks if I need her to come along and I decline. It's nice of her to offer but I'll have Rory so I'll be OK. I tell her I'll call her when we're on our way to New York. She hasn't left yet but she will around noon.

I head back into the living and tell Rory we're meeting with the doctor at 2:30. I then decide to be brave and hold the baby. I might as well get some practice in. I actually don't think I've ever held a baby. I mean when would I? I guess with my cousins but I never did. I guess I just never considered it a boy thing to do. Sure when you're an older brother or a father, I understand but other than that I wouldn't.

As I sit down and hold Rory's little brother, it does make me excited at the prospect of being able to hold my daughter. Rory already has a natural maternal instinct and helps guide me with how to hold him. I only hold him for about 10 minutes because then people start to show up. Rory and I cordially chat with everyone but then excuse ourselves at 1 o'clock to get ready to go.

We're out the door at just after 2 and get to the hospital just before 2:30. This time instead of calling Frank, Rory decided she was fine to drive. I'm sure I could have but I'm glad she volunteered.

We check in with a nurse who takes us back to Dr. West's office. She tells us he'll be along in a couple minutes. He doesn't have a big office but it's still good sized though. He has various degrees and awards scattered throughout the walls. He's also got pictures of his family on his desk.

A few minutes later, an older gentleman, I'd say in his late 50's, comes in. "Hello, I'm Dr. West." He shakes my hand. "You must be Mr. Huntzberger."

"Logan." I correct him.

"Logan." He repeats then turns to Rory to shake her hand. "Hello again Rory."

"Hello Dr. West." She shakes his hand.

He takes a seat behind his desk. "So I assume you've asked for this meeting because you have some questions about your mother's condition?"

I nod. "Yes, I do have a few of them."

"OK." He nods. "Go ahead with them."

"What are her chances of surviving this?"

"Greater than 50%." He tells me. "Around 56%."

Fifty-six percent. Even with it being more than half, that number still seems low…like her odds really aren't good. I feel Rory grab my hand and squeeze it. She gives me a brave smile.

"What course of treatment have you chosen?" I ask quietly. "Rory mentioned something about a mastectomy."

"Yes." He nods. "I did mention about a mastectomy however our ultimate goal is doing just a lumpectomy where we would just remove the tumor and the surrounding tissue. Regardless of which one is done, we will follow up the surgery with a course of radiation."

"And also chemo?"

"Well, we are keeping that as the last option. We are hoping that the majority of it if not all of it will be destroyed by the radiation."

"When is the surgery?" I ask.

"We currently have her scheduled at 9am on Tuesday." He tells me as he looked over his schedule. "Will you be here for the surgery?"

I look over at Rory then. She immediately decides to answer for me.

"We're going to try to. We didn't anticipate this so we need to talk to Logan's boss about staying a few more days."

"That's good. Your mom will need all the family support she can get."

My face goes expressionless. I'm not going to tell him the truth about my whole family dynamic because it's not really his business. So I just calmly reply. "Yeah, sure."

Rory is very good at noticing just how uncomfortable I've gotten. "Logan, did you have any other questions for Dr. West?"

"No, he's answered all of them." I get up from my seat and shake his hand. "Thank you, Dr. West, for meeting with me."

"You're welcome. Please feel free to call me if you have any additional questions."

"Thank you. I will."

We leave the doctor's office at quarter after 3. It's not until we leave Hartford that we say anything.

"What are you thinking about?" She asks as she turns onto the freeway.

"I'm debating whether or not I want to go to the surgery."

Rory's head whips over to look at me. "Wait…are you serious?"

"Watch the road please." I tell her. "Yeah, I'm serious."

"Logan, what happened? What made you change your mind?"

"Well, I was never 100% sure that I was going to go. But now I just keep thinking about what the doctor said and family support. I just think that if I go, my dad is going to get the wrong idea with why I'm there."

"Logan, I know you don't want to talk to him and I told you before you didn't have to but you need to remember have a sister who needs support, too."

I stare at her and she gazes over at me for a second then turns her attention back to the road. "If you really don't want to go, I'll understand but I think you should discuss that with Honor. The last thing we would want is for her to feel abandoned."

Once again, my wife has made a good point. A very good point, actually. Over the last 24 hours, I think that I've made my sister feel abandoned enough. She spent all day yesterday trying to get a hold of me and I didn't bother to check at any point during the day to see who called me. I won't give her a reason to feel that way again.

"OK. We'll talk to her about it and we'll go from there."

"Good idea." She smiles as she watches the road.

We arrive at Honor's brownstone at 4:30. Josh is actually the one who opens the door for us. As we go into the living room. I gaze around the bottom level of the house. I can't find my sister anywhere.

"Josh, where's Honor?" I ask.

"She's upstairs in our bedroom. She hasn't came out since we got home a couple hours ago."

"Has she talked to you at all about mom?" I ask.

"A little but not much." Josh sighs. "She's just been really quiet and telling me how she really doesn't feel like talking."

I sigh then. I kiss Rory's forehead and tell her and Josh that I'll be back in a few minutes. I head upstairs to find her. I get to her bedroom door and knock. I don't get an answer though. "Honor?" She still doesn't respond so I take a risky move and slowly open the door. I find her sitting on her window seat. She's staring outside.

"Hey." I take a seat by her.

"Hey." She whispers. Her eyes never leave the window though.

"Are you OK?" OK, so that was a stupid question. "OK, never mind. You don't need to answer that because I know the answer to that already." I look at her and I can see tears start to slowly fall down her face. "Come here." I grab her and wrap my arms around her and pull her into a huge hug.

"God Logan." She whimpers.

"I know, I know."

"I'm trying my hardest to believe that the last 48 hours has been a nightmare."

"I wish it was." I admit. "I never imagined that something like this would happen."

"I know." She pulls back from me. "How did it go with the doctor?"

"Depressing." I admit with a sad smile. "Did he tell you the statistics?"

She slowly nods. "Yeah, like just over 50%. Her surgery is on Tuesday."

"Yeah, he mentioned that." I answer quietly.

"Are you going to be there?"

"Well…" I start to hesitate then I see her face become crestfallen.

"Logan, please tell me that you're going to be there." She begs. "I need you there. I don't think I can be strong unless you're there. Please please tell me that you'll be there."

I can't disappoint her. I wrap my arms around her again. "OK, I'll be there. I promise." I whisper.

"Thank you." She's holding back her tears.

I keep her wrapped in that hug for probably close to 10 minutes. We spend the majority of the time quiet and I just let her cry. I'd never admit this to her or probably anyone else but I started tearing up a little too. Honor never saw that though.

A few minutes later, after her tears have been dried, we head downstairs. I can hear Rory talking to Josh in the living room about her little brother. They both look up when we come into the living room.

"Hey." Rory smiles at her. She gets up and gives her a hug. "Are you doing OK?"

She nods. "Yeah, I'm doing a little better." She admits. I think I see Josh breathe a sigh of relief. "I'm really glad you're both here."

"Of course we're here. We're going to be here throughout this ordeal." Rory then glances over at me. "We are, right? We're staying for the surgery aren't we?"

"Yeah, we are."

"I kind of badgered him into it." Honor reveals.

"Your brother would be willing to do anything for you, Honor." Rory confesses. It's the truth but I am still surprised she told her that. "Well, short of illegal, that is."

Honor laughs a little and I think I really see Josh take a huge sigh of relief. I think it's been awhile since he had seen her laugh. "So what are you guys talking about?"

"My little brother." Rory gushes. "Do you want to see pictures of him?"

"You took pictures of him?" I ask.

"Well, yeah with my phone I did." Rory starts to dig in her purse for her phone. "Do you want to see pictures of him, Honor?"

She smiles. "Sure, that would be great."

Rory whips her phone and shows her all 6 pictures of him. Wow! I didn't realize she had that many pictures of him. I see Honor relax a little. I think we're all taking this a good sign. Honestly, seeing her that way was starting to scare the crap out of me. My sister has always been the popular one. Always had a boyfriend and always had lots of friends. I think she and Rory have that in common. They tend to get along with everyone. They're social butterflies. I don't remember the last time or if I ever have seen her so depressed. Even when she would have a break up with a boyfriend. Granted the situation is different. This isn't a boyfriend we're talking about; it's my mom but it's still scary to see Honor like that.

We spend the rest of the night sticking to subjects that don't require us to think about anything that is depressing. We keep the mood light. We order pizza for supper and talk about Honor and Josh and their work, our work, and of course our baby.

It's now 11:30 and Rory and I are lying in bed in Honor's guest room.

"You're a good brother." She tells me.

"I try to be." I admit as I wrap my arm around her and keep her close to me.

"No, you are, Logan." She insists. "Look, I know you're worried about what's going to happen with your dad but just keep the focus on Tuesday on your mom and Honor. They're the ones you really need to worry about."

"It was kind of scary walking into her bedroom earlier, Rory." I admit.

"Why's that?" She looks up at me.

"I've never seen her like that." I tell her. "I was really worried about her."

"She's strong, Logan. She's resilient. She's going to be fine and you know why?"

"Why?"

"Because she has you beside her through all of this. I think she might have been fine even without you but I think it would probably have taken a lot longer to break her out of her depression. She seemed to be doing pretty good when you came down." Rory notes.

"Yeah, I held her while she cried." I confess. "I think she just needed to let it all out."

"I'm sure." Rory nods. "It's a lot. You're very lucky to have each other. "

"I know we wouldn't have made it past our teens if we didn't. We really did rely on each other when we were younger."

"I know; I can tell that. That's great. I hope when he grows up, my little brother and I will be close like you two are. That may be difficult considering our huge age difference but I hope he knows that he'll be able to come to me if he needs to."

"I have no doubt about that, Ace. You know you had someone like that even it wasn't a sibling. Your mom is yours."

"That's true; she's always been my person to go to when I was growing up. We were best friends before we were mother and daughter."

I nod. "You're a great sister, too, you know. Even with your little sister, you're great. Your brother and sister will both know that you're always there for them."

She smiles. "You think?"

"I know." I give her a kiss. "Are you tired?"

She slowly nods. "Yeah, I am. We better go to sleep. Goodnight, Logan."

"Goodnight, Ace. I love you."

"I love you too."

We then drift off to sleep.

**Tuesday morning, 8:58am**

Rory and I arrive at the hospital at just before 9 and my stomach is doing somersaults. I really don't want to see my dad. I'm going to be brave though. I need to. We get to the surgery waiting room and I see my family there. Honor looks up then gets up and runs to me. I see my dad look up then. She gives me a big hug.

"I'm so glad you're here." She whispers to me.

"I told you I would be." I remind her and give her another hug. "Dad." I nod as I take a seat on the other side of Honor.

"Logan." He says. "I'm glad you came."

"Of course I came." I tell him as Rory takes a seat next to me. She pulls out her baby book she's been reading.

"Hello Rory." Dad says to her.

"Hello Mitchum." She tries to crack a smile. "Has the doctor already been out?"

Dad nods. "Yes, Shira will be in surgery anywhere from an hour to 3."

"How is Shira doing?" Rory asks.

"Honestly, she's terrified. She knows that this is the only way to get rid of the cancer though."

I feel my sister reach over and grab my hand. I look over at her and she looks scared too so I squeeze her hand. I whisper that it'll be okay to her and she nods.

"I'm sure she'll do fine." Rory tries to reassure him.

"That's what we're hoping for."

I don't talk to him at all. I don't even look at him. This is really cruel I'm sure at a time like this but I can't do this. I just spend my time reading the newspaper that's on the table. I look over at Rory and she's got a grin on her face.

"What?" I ask.

"Nothing." She giggles.

"Rory what?"

"It's nothing; it's just your daughter picks the most interesting times to make her presence known."

"Is she kicking?" Honor looks over at Rory and Rory nods. "Can I feel it?"

"Sure."

Honor then leans over me and puts her hand on Rory's stomach. "Wow! That's so cool."

"It's just funny how she started kicking now."

"Maybe it's because you were humming while you were reading your book." Honor tells Rory and Rory's eyes grow wide."What?"

I laugh. "I never told her about that, Honor."

"I was humming? What was I humming?"

"Baby Mine." I tell her. "You tend to hum that when you're reading that book."

"I do?" Rory looks so shocked by that. "I didn't realize that I was."

"I know. That's why I never brought it up to you." I tell her.

About an hour later, an hour and a half into the surgery, I ask Rory if she wants something to drink. I'm going to get me some coffee. She says she wants a cup as do Honor and Josh.

I make my way to the cafeteria to grab us all coffee. I start to fill up cups.

"You know, I am still a little surprised that you showed up. I wasn't sure that you would." Now how did I know he would follow me?

"She's my mother. Of course I'm here. But make note because I'm here for her and I'm here for Honor but I'm not here for you. This doesn't change anything, dad." I inform him coldly as I turn to keep filling up cups.

"How are things in San Francisco?" He asks.

"Do you honestly care?"

"Yes I do."

"Why?'

"Because even if you don't care about me right now that doesn't mean that I don't care about you."

"Things are great in San Francisco. Rory's working and loving her job, the baby is doing great. My job is going great."

"That's good. I'm glad."

"Are you?"

"Of course I am. Why do you keep questioning my sincerity?" He scowls.

"Because you've never cared before." My eyes narrow. "My entire life growing up you never cared. It would have been nice to know that you did. It would have been nice to actually hear you were proud of me instead of just automatically assuming the worst."

I finish filling the cups and head to the checkout to pay.

I bring everyone their coffee and they all thank me. Rory whispers to me as I sit back down beside her. "Are you OK?"

I nod. "Yeah, I'm fine."

She doesn't press me further on it. I think she can tell I really don't want to talk about him.

At 11:45, Dr. West comes out of the operating room to meet with us. It turns out that the surgeons had to do a mastectomy after all. He described what was done and how we were going to proceed with further treatment. He still wanted to keep chemo as a last resort option. I reach instinctively for Honor's hand and keep hold on it. We ask the doctor questions and after he answers them, he advises that it's okay for my dad to go in and see her for right now. Dad goes into to visit with my mom and leaves the four of us for the moment.

It's about half an hour later when my dad comes out and tells us to come in. As soon as I come in, my mom's eyes light up. "Logan?"

I nod. "Yeah, mom, I'm here."

"I'm so glad you are." She tells me as she reaches for my hand.

"Yeah, me too."

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**OK. I had a little bit of a difficult time with that doctor scene earlier. I struggled with the chapter. I'm sure you could probably even tell that. The next one will be about two months later and Rory at 7 months pregnant. I'm going to have her baby shower in Stars Hollow be the next chapter. Review please and also go vote! As I mentioned you don't have to review to vote. Even if you don't submit a review, please vote! Thanks for all the reviews you do, I love reading them! **


	34. Never lie to a pregnant woman

**Sorry it took me this long to get the chapter out. The next chapter Rory's going to have the baby and then there will be an epilogue. Logan's POV was very limited in this chapter. Most of it is from Rory's POV. Please review! You know how much I love to read them. Also, to the person who did my last review. I never got notice of it in my email so I apologize that I never responded. Anyway, hope you like it and remember to review!**

* * *

**Two and a half months later**

I'm nearing the final stretch here. I've got roughly six weeks left. I've gotten huge! I've gained roughly twenty-eight pounds. Logan is constantly telling me how beautiful I look but I think he is afraid of what would happen if he said anything different. Like maybe I would hurt his manhood.

We're heading back to Stars Hollow this afternoon for my baby shower tomorrow. This is probably going to be the last weekend I'm going to be able to fly before the baby comes. That's Logan's personal preference, not the doctor's. The doctor said I could fly probably up to another 3 weeks but Logan is not wanting to take any chances. It's our first baby so I'm letting him have his way.

As for Logan's mom, she seems to doing OK considering. She has had reconstructive surgery and has been going to radiation twice a week every week since her surgery. We've been keeping tabs on Shira through Honor. Speaking of Honor, she let us know that she's also pregnant. She's 6 weeks along and we just found out a couple nights ago. Logan's so happy for her. We both are.

Everything is going good at work. So far we've released 3 issues and we have the 4th coming out in two weeks. Everyone's been great. I really love editing. We started small with the amount of readers. Logan and I have established a rhythm at work. I don't work more than 8 hours and he doesn't make a big deal about the hours I do work. We normally have lunch together and try to stay off the work stuff. Most of the time we're successful but every once in awhile it'll creep in though.

Our daughter's doing very well. She's very active. She's actually woken me up in the middle of the night with her kicking and of course my many trips to the bathroom. Logan thinks it's funny until I remind him how vasectomies can be done right in the doctor's office. He tends to shut up then.

We're getting close to being done with Lamaze classes. We've been going for the last 4 weeks. Logan's been great throughout it. Actually, he's been really great throughout the whole pregnancy in general. He's been to all of my appointments regardless if there's been a sonogram or not. He's also been very hands on during the classes. He still talks to her often. Logan's going to be a great father.

I'm almost done packing. I'm debating how many empty suitcases we should take. I'm thinking 2 or 3. It sounds like we're going to have a big turnout. I do know that Honor will be there. Paris is invited but who know if she will actually come. Stephanie is going to come too. Both grandmas are coming and Francine is bringing Gigi. The rest of the people will be Stars Hollow people.

"Ace, come on." Logan comes in from the living room. "We need to get going."

"Take some of this luggage out, would you?"

He scans the amount of luggage and frowns. "These are all filled with clothes?"

"Of course not." I tell him and point to two of the suitcases. "Those are empty. I'm taking them to pack the baby stuff in. I don't know how much stuff I'll…"

He clears his throat.

"Sorry, we'll be getting."

"I think we'll be fine with taking just 1 extra suitcase."

"Logan…"

"Rory, baby clothes don't take up that much room." He reminds me. "We'll be fine with just one."

I sigh. "OK, fine. So what do you plan on doing while the baby shower is going on?"

"I'm not sure. Colin and Finn are coming down."

"Really? They're going to risk coming back to town?"

"Well, they're dropping Steph off for the shower so they decided to be brave and try to stick around town."

"Well, that's great."

"How long do you think that the shower will be?" He asks as he carries the suitcases out of our room and puts them by the front door.

"Probably two or three hours." I predict.

"What time does it start?"

"Two."

We then head out and make it for our two o'clock flight with 7 minutes to spare. Logan had to drive a little faster than normal. We got damn lucky there wasn't a cop between our condo and the airport.

The flight's smooth; nothing unusual happening, thank God. I did have a note in my purse from my doctor in case the pilot needed to see it for clearance from her that gave me the OK to fly. They didn't ask though.

It's almost midnight when we get to my house. As soon as I get out of the passenger side, I notice that the light by the living room window is on. Mom's probably up feeding Ayden.

"So has your mom settled into a routine with Ayden?" Logan asks as he gets our luggage out of the trunk.

"Yeah, she said that it took about 6 weeks but she's not getting up at 3am anymore for feedings. I am kind of surprised to see she's still up right now. I figured she would be in bed."

As it turns out mom was asleep. It was actually Luke that was in the living room, feeding Ayden. It is actually really cute because both of them are asleep. Luke is holding him up on his shoulder.

"I'm having a mental picture of 4 months from now, the same thing happening to you." I inform Logan quietly as I creep over and slowly take Ayden from Luke. I startle him by doing this.

"Shh…" I whisper to him. "I'll take him upstairs for you."

"It's OK. I can do it." Luke whispers to me.

"No, let me." I insist. "I'd like to."

"OK." He nods.

I slowly creep up the steps and head into my mom's room. Ayden's crib is in the corner of the room. It is dark but there's enough light to see where I'm going. The last thing I need is to drop my little brother on his head.

"Luke?" I hear my mom whisper.

"No, mom it's me." I tell her quietly as I lay Ayden in his crib. I pull his blanket up to keep him warm.

"Rory?" She flips the light on her nightstand on.

"Yeah." I come over to her bed and take a seat on the edge of it. "Luke fell asleep downstairs so I carried Ayden upstairs for him. Is the light going to wake him up?"

"No, he's been doing pretty good sleeping no matter if the room is light or dark."

"That's good."

"It is." She confirms. "So how was your flight?"

"Good. Normal."

"Good. Let me get a good look at you. Stand up."

It's really weird hearing her say that. "Why?"

"Because I haven't seen you in over 2 months. I just want to see how big you've gotten."

"How about we just leave it at I'm huge?" I sigh.

"Oh, come on Rory."

I reluctantly stand up and show her.

"You're really not that big."

"Oh yes I am." I argue. "Listen, I better get back downstairs. I need to get some sleep. It's been a long day."

"OK." She nods. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight." I give her a hug and kiss and tell her I love her. She tells me she loves me too. I head back downstairs and Logan and Luke are discussing Luke's sleepless nights.

"Did he wake back up?" Luke asks.

I shake my head. "No, mom woke up when I brought him in. I was talking to her. By the way I heard what you said about your insomnia. I thought he was sleeping through the night."

"He does most of the time. There's about once a week when he won't. Tonight he's going to bed a little later than normal. Hopefully he'll stay asleep."

"I'm sure he will. Speaking of, that's where we'll be heading." I tell him as I tug on Logan's arm.

"Goodnight Luke." Logan gets up and grabs the luggage.

"Goodnight Logan."

"Go get some sleep." I tell Luke.

"I will. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

I head into my bedroom and Logan has already changed out of his clothes and is just getting into bed. I dig in the suitcase and pull out my pajamas. I carefully change into them and sigh.

"What's wrong?" Logan asks.

"Nothing." I tell him.

"Come on, Rory. What's wrong?"

"I'm glad this pregnancy is near the end." I reveal.

"Why's that?"

I stare at him like he's crazy to ask. "Because I miss seeing my feet and it will be nice to not have to worry about ripping my clothes." I inform him. "Getting my pajamas on every night is becoming a struggle."

"You could always sleep naked." He points out with a grin.

"Ha, ha. Aren't you funny." I tell him as I climb into bed.

"I'm serious."

"No thank you." I give him a kiss. "Goodnight." I turn out my light on my nightstand.

"What, you think just because you turn out the night that the conversation's done?"

My back's to him."Logan, I'm tired and I want to go to sleep."

"We either talk about what's bothering you now or first thing in the morning."

"Sounds good. We'll talk first thing in the morning." I tell him. "Goodnight."

He's not happy I know but right now all I want to do is go to sleep. It's been a long day. Any day we fly is a long day. Don't get me wrong. I have enjoyed being pregnant but the constant trips to the bathroom, the mood swings, the not seeing my feet and my clothes always being too small are really really starting to get to me.

I just don't think that Logan's going to be able to understand what I'm feeling. I think he's going to think I'm just being overly sensitive. It takes me awhile to fall asleep. I don't know if he's aware of it or not but Logan snuggled up closer to me and put his arm around my waist and pulled me to him. I crack a small smile. He's trying; I know he's trying.

"I love you." He mumbles in my hair.

"I love you too Logan." I tell him as I get up.

"Where are you going?" He cracks an eye open.

"Where I go like 4 times a night." I sigh and head for the bathroom. I come back a few minutes later and it appears he's now awake.

"Are you OK?" He asks as I climb into bed.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's OK. Go back to sleep."

He pulls me to him. "I am sorry that everything seems more like a burden now." He whispers in my ear. "It's like you said though. You're almost done."

"Yeah, almost." I whisper.

"What can I say to make you feel better?" He asks as he strokes my hair.

"Nothing. I'm OK."

"Would you turn around and tell me that?"

I reluctantly turn around and face him. I stare at him for a second. He's looking worried. "I'm OK, Logan." I tell him. He's not relaxing though. So I kiss him.

"You know we can always get you more clothes." He points out.

"We shouldn't have to." I argue.

"Rory, I'm not sure why you're so reluctant to buy more clothes. Is it just the fact that you're seeing the sizes go up that bothers you?"

"Kind of."

"Your weight is right where it should be." He reminds me. "The doctor said so herself." Then he adds as he looks me over closely. "So what else is it?"

"It's silly, Logan."

"Try me, Rory." It then dawns on him. "Wait, do you think that I'm thinking you're not attractive because you're getting bigger?"

I'm quiet so he knows he's guessed correctly. "Ace, you are the most gorgeous woman ever."

I'm internally rolling my eyes because that's a huge exaggeration.

"I've told you several times it doesn't matter to me how much weight you gain. Quite frankly, you look incredibly sexy being pregnant."

"Logan…"

"Ace, you do." He argues. "Why don't you believe me?"

"Because I'm willing to bet you're going to tell me anything to make sure that I don't affect your ability to have more kids."

"Rory you have to get past this." He tells me. "I'm telling you the truth. You're so beautiful. The fact that you're pregnant just makes you even sexier." He reveals.

"If that's the case, why haven't we had sex in 10 days?" I ask him bluntly.

"Well, that was more for you." He tells me. "I was thinking that maybe it was becoming uncomfortable for you."

"It's not." I inform him. "Don't assume; just ask."

"OK, I will." He tells me as he kisses me. He pulls me on top of him.

"So let me ask you something." I sit up.

"What's that?"

"Let's say you were right and it was getting to be uncomfortable. You would have been fine going two months without sex?"

"I've went longer than that before, Rory." He reminds me, speaking of when he was in London.

"Not while we were living together you haven't." I point out.

"I would have been fine." He insists.

"Should we test the theory out?" I smirk.

He groans. "You need to get off me then."

I laugh. "I won't torture you like that, Logan." I lean down and kiss him.

By the time we finish making love, it's 3:30 in the morning. It's been awhile since we've had sex this late; then again, it's only 12:30 at home.

Logan's brushing my hair off of my face. "Tired?"

I nod. "Yeah."

"Is your mind put at ease at all?"

"Are you thinking that I'm being silly for thinking the way I was?"

"No, I don't think you're being silly and I'm sorry that if the fact that we haven't had sex in a week and half was making you think it was you. It's not. You are absolutely gorgeous whether you're pregnant or not."

I smile at him.

"Mind at ease now?"

"Yes, it is."

He grins at me then gives me a kiss. 'We better go to sleep. Big day today."

I give him another kiss. "Goodnight Logan. I love you."

"I love you too Ace. Goodnight."

We're both up at 10:30. When we go into the living room, my mom is setting things up for the baby shower and Ayden is sitting in the swing.

"Hey kids."

"Hey mom. Do you need any help?"

"No, it's OK, hun. I'm almost done. Why don't you go have some breakfast?"

"Yeah I am pretty hungry."

"Well, Luke made breakfast for you. I got it from the diner a couple hours ago. I'm sure it's cold but it should still taste pretty good heated up."

"You got something besides muffins?"

"Yeah, actually he made some pancakes, sausage, bacon, and scrambled eggs."

"Wow!" I exclaim. "That's really nice of him. I wonder what made him decided to make all that food."

"Well, he knew it was going to be a big day." My mom tells us and then whispers in my ear. "And he might have heard you last night."

"Heard what?" My eyes narrow.

"You know what." My mom teases.

"Oh my god!" I exclaim and glance over at Logan who is trying to control his laughter. "What did he say?"

"He told me what he thought you were doing. I reminded him that you're married and it wasn't that big of a deal and told him to go to sleep. Don't worry about it." My mom tells me as she heads into the living room to get the baby.

"We're never having sex here again." I tell Logan adamantly.

"Considering that this will be the last time we'll be here without the baby I can see that being a distinct possibility." He reminds me as he takes some food and puts it in the microwave.

"Rory?" My mom calls to me from the living room.

"Yeah?"

"I'll be upstairs if you need me. I'm going to feed Ayden."

"OK." I call back as I take Logan's plate out of the microwave and hand it to him. I then put my plate in.

We quietly eat. The food's still really good. I take a bite of my sausage and a drink of my orange juice.

"What's on your mind, Ace?" He asks as he takes a bite of his pancakes.

"Just thinking about the party." It's not a lie. I'm keeping the party in the front of my mind to avoid thinking about the fact that mom and Luke heard us have sex. "That and this is really good."

"Yeah it is."

At one-thirty, people start to show up. My grandmas and Gigi are first to arrive. Mom lets Gigi hold Ayden but she makes her sit down on the couch. Francine helps her out. Ayden just watches her, kind of unsure what to make of her. Eventually he starts crying and I take him from her.

"So Rory how's your pregnancy been going?" Francine asks.

"It's been pretty good overall. I have a very active little girl inside me." I tell all of them.

"Hello ladies." Logan comes in from my bedroom.

They all greet him cordially as he takes a seat on the couch next to me. He gives me a quick kiss.

"Are you going to stick around for the baby shower, Logan?" My grandma asks.

"No, I'm not." He tells her. "Our friends are going to be in town so we'll do something together. Stephanie, one of our friends, will be here, though."

"Are a lot of your friends going to be here, Rory?" Grandma asks.

"Some of them are but the majority of the people are just from town." I close my eyes for a second. The baby's kick up a storm.

"Ace, you OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. She's just kicking a lot." I explain to all of them.

"Can I feel the baby kick?" Gigi asks.

"Sure sweetie." I hand Ayden over to Logan. I grab Gigi's hand and put it on my stomach. It's a few seconds later when she jumps as soon as she feels her kick. We all laugh.

"Wow! She kicks a lot." She tells me.

"Yes, she does." Logan and I tell her in unison.

"So Gigi do you know what you get to be to the baby?" Logan asks.

"An aunt." Gigi tells us. "Grandma and daddy told me that."

"That's right." I tell her with a smile.

"What does an aunt do?" She asks.

Logan and I look at each other, kind of unsure how to answer. I never had any aunts or uncles. Logan luckily has so he decides to answer.

"Well, an aunt is someone that gets to play with the baby and hold her. And when she gets older if she has questions that she doesn't want to ask me or Rory she'll come ask you."

Gigi just stares at us, confused.

"Look, Gigi, there's not a clear cut way to describe everything an aunt does because there's lots that an aunt can do. We'll just figure that out as we go along, OK?" I tell her.

"OK." She nods.

Well, that was easy. Maybe we should have tried that approach first.

There's a knock on the door and I get up to answer it. When I open it, I see Honor, Maya, and Stephanie standing there. Maya was the only one of Logan's aunts who was able to attend.

"Hey ladies. Come on in." I give them all hugs as they come in. I then look at the guys. I see Colin, Finn…and Robert. Oh, this is going to get interesting.

"Hello, darling." Finn gives me a hug and a kiss. "You look as gorgeous as ever."

"I know you're lying, Finn but thank you."

"Hey Rory."

"Hey…Robert." I plaster a smile on. I'm just in shock that he's here. "It's good to see you. It's been awhile."

"Yeah, it has."

"Hey Colin."

"Hey Rory. Good to see you."

"You too. Hey, if you go instead you get to witness Logan holding my little brother."

Colin heads in and Robert starts to follow him but I stop him. I close the door.

"Something wrong?" He asks.

"I just want to talk to you for a second." I tell him.

"OK. What about?"

I give him a knowing smile. "You know what about, Robert. This thing with you and Maya."

"What about me and Maya? We're just friends."

"That's what Maya said at Christmas." I tell him. "Logan's not only very protective of his sister but also of his aunt."

"So what are you trying to tell me?"

"Hi sugar." I see Babette, Miss Patty and Gypsy come up the steps.

"Hey ladies." I smile. "Good to see you."

"You too, Rory." Miss Patty gives me a hug then looks at Robert. "Wait, he's not Logan, is he?"

"No, Logan's blonde." Gypsy reminds her.

"No, this isn't Logan. This is his friend, Robert. Logan's inside. Go on in. I think that Ayden's still awake."

They all head in and I close the door back up. "Where were we?"

"You were getting to a point." He reminds me.

"Look, Robert, it's none of our business whether you're just friends with Maya or something more however, I don't want you guys getting into a fight about it."

"Tell your husband that."

"I plan to." I confirm for him. "But I do not want you egging him about the fact that you and Maya are…whatever you are. We've got enough to deal with between the baby coming and the fact that Shira has cancer and doing her treatments, and the fact that he and his parents are still estranged."

"I have no intention of causing trouble, Rory." He confirms for me.

"Good." I smile. "It is good to see you."

"Yeah, you too." He looks me up and down then. "You've changed a little since the last time I saw you."

"Yeah, just a little." I tell him as I open the door. "I better go in. I'm not really being a very good hostess."

"OK."

I head in and Robert's trailing behind me. Logan's now hiding out in the kitchen with his friends and sister and aunt.

"Ace, I was beginning to worry about you." He tells me without turning around.

"Sorry. I'm here though."

"Where were…" He turns around and sees Robert and Logan's face turns cold. "What the hell are you doing here?"

I groan. "Logan…"

Logan turns to Maya. "Did you bring him here?"

"Logan, you guys are friends." Maya reminds him.

"You think I'm going to be friends with the guy who's sleeping with my aunt…"

"Logan Elias Huntzberger!" I growl at him. "Get outside now!"

"No."

"Do I need to threaten you with what I normally threaten you with?"

"You can't force me to do that."

I sigh. "That's true. I can't. But I can make sure this is a sexless marriage. Get outside now!" I demand. I hold the back door open and tap my foot. "Get moving or I'm going to start the countdown of how long you're going without."

"Rory…"

"You're up to 3 days, Logan." I warn him and my eyes narrow. "You want to go longer?"

He very reluctantly gets up and goes outside. We move away from the house.

"Tell me something…are you trying to put me into premature labor?"

"Rory…"

"Damn it Logan! You're 26 years old! Do you know that?"

"Of course I know that."

"Then quit acting like a 10 year old. Your aunt is 32 years old!" I remind him. "She is a big girl! Who she's friends with, let alone sleeps with, is none of our business. You may not like the fact that Maya's friends with Robert but in this case, your opinion doesn't matter." I tell him bluntly.

He just stares at me.

"Look, I know you're just looking out for Maya but if you don't drop this, you're going to be estranged from your aunt. Do you want that?"

"No, of course not but…"

"How about a sexless marriage? You want that?"

"Hell no."

"Then drop this and go apologize to your aunt and Robert. They both deserve it."

He starts to argue about apologizing to Robert and I cut him off.

"Make that 5 days without sex, Logan. The more you protest, the longer your dry spell is going to be. "

"Why do you even care about Robert's feelings?"

"Because he's my friend, just like your aunt." I inform him. "Besides the fact that he already promised me that he wasn't going to make trouble."

"He promised you?" Logan raises an eyebrow.

"Yes, he did."

"And you believe him?"

"I have no reason not to. Besides, he should know not to lie to a pregnant lady. If he's going to behave, you need to, too." I inform him.

We stand there in silence for what seems like an eternity when in fact it had only been about 30 seconds when I hear someone clear their throat. I look over and see Lane and Sookie standing there.

"Hi." They say in unison.

"Hey." I tell them.

"Everything OK?" Sookie asks.

I nod. "Yeah, everything's fine. Just a little Huntzberger chat." I smile. "I'll be inside in just a second."

"OK." They tell them then I turn back to my husband."I want you to try to get along, OK? I told Robert that we have a lot on our plate between the baby and your mom and stuff that I want this day to be stress-free. Will you be civil?"

He's still quiet.

"Please? For me?"

He sighs and I know I've won. "OK. For you I will."

I grin. "Good. Go inside and apologize."

"Hold it."

My eyes narrow. "What?"

He pulls me to him. "It's time to bargain."

"For what?"

"If I do this, you take away the 5 days I'm going without."

"You think you're worth that?" I tease him with a laugh and he gives me a long kiss. "OK so maybe you are."

He chuckles.

"You have to get through the next few hours without a fight before that happens."

"I will."

We head back inside and everyone's still sitting around the table and Logan apologizes…after I stomp on his foot.

"Rory!" My mom calls from the living room. "Come on!"

"I'm coming mom." I call back.

"Let's go guys." Logan gives me a kiss then heads for the door.

Honor, Maya, and Stephanie head into the living room but I stop Colin, Finn and Robert from leaving.

"I'm going off of your word here, Robert." I remind him.

"I promise, Rory."

"That's good because it's never wise to lie to a pregnant woman." I inform him then look at Colin and Finn. "You two are going to report back to me if they're not civil to each other."

They kind of give each other looks.

"You're not going to lie to me either, guys. I'll know if you are. That and don't think I can't sway your girlfriends."

That causes them to pay attention.

"OK." Colin says.

"We promise." Finn adds.

"OK." I lead them into the living room. They start to make their exit out the front door.

"You boys play nice." I call to them and wave. I take a seat on the couch and groan. "I'm so glad I'm having a girl first." I tell all of them and everyone laughs

* * *

I'm riding in the front seat in with Colin and Finn and Robert are in the back. I still can't believe he's here. The things I do for my wife. I have no doubt that he's sleeping with Maya. I sigh. I'm sure Rory's right though. It isn't really any of my business. I just know that he's going to hurt her though. He has to other girls he's dated. I've known him long enough to know how his rap sheet reads. For the sake of my marriage and my sex life, I'll keep my mouth shut. He better not hurt her otherwise I will have to kick his ass.

"Where to, Logan? You know this town." Colin reminds me.

"Let's go to Luke's." I tell him. "It should be too bad today. All of the women are at Rory's shower."

"What is Luke's?" Robert asks.

"It's Rory's stepdad's diner." I explain.

"Very good food." Colin says.

"Excellent pie." Finn adds.

Colin parks in front of Luke's and we head inside. There's still several people inside eating. This time when we come in, no one really notices. Good. I'm glad the appeal has worn off.

"Everyone actually seems kind of…" Colin starts to say.

"Mellow." Finn finishes.

"Nice change from last time." I comment.

"Hey Logan." Luke comes out from the kitchen.

"Hey Luke. Do you remember Colin, Finn, and Robert?"

"Yeah, hey guys. So decided not to stay for the shower, huh?"

"There's a little too much estrogen in the house for my taste." I admit and he laughs.

"I hear ya. Go take a seat anywhere you want and I'll be over in a second, guys."

We take a seat next to a table by the window. Luke comes out and takes our drink orders and leaves the menus.

"So what's good here?" Robert asks as he opens the menus.

"We all had burgers the last time we were here." Colin answers.

Luke comes back to take our orders after he puts down our drinks. After he heads back to the kitchen I tell the guys I'll be right back. I take a seat on one of the stools at the counter.

"Hey Luke, have you got a second?" I ask him as he comes out from the kitchen.

"Sure what's up?"

"Listen…I heard that you heard us this morning and I just wanted to tell you sorry."

"Oh, that's OK. Lorelai has a point. You two are married now."

"Yeah." I sigh. "We are."

"Everything OK?"

"Yeah." I nod."Everything's fine. Anyway, I just wanted to apologize to you. You won't have to worry about that happening again."

"Not a big deal but thanks."

I head back to the table and the guys look at me curiously.

"What?" I ask.

"So what was that about?" Finn asks.

"Nothing." I tell them as I sit back down.

"So how have things been?" Colin asks me.

"They're good. Six weeks to go before the baby comes. Are you guys going to be coming out to visit after Rory has her?"

"Yeah sure."

"I'd ask how Rory is doing but I got an idea today." Colin says.

I sigh. "She has been doing good but she informed me last night before we went to bed how she can't wait for the pregnancy to be over."

"I'm sure she can't." Finn says.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it can't be easy for her, mate. Think about it. She's carrying another person inside her. I'm sure her back's starting to hurt."

OK so that's a good point. I guess it wasn't just a question of how she looked but how she was even feeling when we talked about this last night. "Yeah, I'm sure it's not."

We eat lunch and stick to neutral topics. The afternoon tends to go pretty fast. Thank God. We hand out in the diner for the duration of the baby shower.

It's about 5:30 when we get back to the house. We're heading inside when Robert stops me. I reluctantly stop.

"Look, I know you don't want to believe this but Maya and I are really just friends."

"Robert, you've never been just friends with any girl."

"That's true. But Maya's the first. She's been having a hard time with your mom's diagnosis." He tells me. "We just spend our time just hanging out and drinking. She's a friend; nothing more, OK?"

I never put into thought really into how much my mom's cancer would affect Maya. Of course she needed someone. I guess I thought she's come to me or Honor but with the way things are between me and my parents, I can see why she hadn't.

"OK fine."

I head inside with him following behind me. As soon as I open the door I how the whole living room looks like it's been doused in every pink and purple thing imaginable. My mouth is nearly on the floor.

Rory turns around and says. "I told you I was going to need more than one suitcase."

* * *

"Hi everyone." I wave to them all as I sit down on the couch. Mom's on one side of me and Lane is on the other. "I'm so sorry to have kept you all waiting."

"It's always good to let people know if you're going to go do something." My grandma reminds me. "That's always good manners."

"I said I was sorry, grandma. I did not plan to take as long as I did."

"Mom, leave her alone. She doesn't need you nagging her."

"I wasn't trying to nag her, Lorelai."

"But you are."

"OK enough." I tell them as I hear a knock on the door. I carefully stand up and go answer it. It's Lulu and I also see Paris coming.

"Hi Rory." Lulu says and she gives me a hug. "You look great."

"Oh thanks."

Paris comes up the steps then. "Wow! You've gotten big, haven't you?"

"Gee thanks, Paris. Just wait until you have a baby."

We start by playing a few games. During the alphabetical baby word game, where you name baby items that begin with each letter the ultimate winner turned out to be Sookie. Of course she has 3 kids so I could see how she could come up with the most. Baby Pictionary was won by Maya. The baby food game was a tie between Sookie and Lane. Pin the Bottle on the Calendar was won by grandma and guessing how big my stomach was won by Miss Patty. The last thing that's done for a game is everyone got to decorate a onesie for me. Mom got onesies in both pink and purple. Gigi's is by far the most colorful. It's very cute though.

It's just after 4 when we open presents. Let me tell you, there are a lot of them. The first one I open is from my mom. It's a beautiful satin pink patchwork quilt. She made it herself.

"Mom, it's gorgeous." I gasp. "When did you have time to make this?"

"Pretty much all my free time was devoted to it before the baby was born."

"Well, it's beautiful. Thank you."

I next open Lulu's present. It's cute….except it's a blue sleeper set. "Oh, it's so sweet that your son and Lorelai's son are going to be so close in age." She tells me.

"Lulu…Rory's having a girl." Babette tells her.

"She is?" She then turns to me. "You are?"

I smile and nod.

"Oh, I'm sorry Rory. Kirk told me you were having a boy too."

"It's OK, Lulu. It's not a big deal. I'll keep it for when we have a boy. Thank you. It's very cute."

Gypsy gets me some diapers, wipes, and bottles. "Wow! Thank you Gypsy. I really appreciate it."

"You're welcome Rory."

I get a couple of frilly pink and purple dresses from Babette. They're adorable. Gigi gave the baby a cute little pink teddy bear and rattles. Miss Patty gave us a really cute diaper bag, diapers, and baby shampoo and lotion. Honor, Maya and Stephanie went in together and got me a bouncy seat, a swing, and a diaper genie.

"You guys spent way too much." I inform them.

"Are you kidding?" Honor exclaims. "She's my niece. Of course I'm going to spoil her."

"She's going to be my niece too." Gigi says and we laugh.

"That's right; she will be." Honor tells her. "We're going to have fun being aunts, aren't we Gigi?"

She grins. "Yep."

I smile. I then open Lane's presents and she got me a blanket, a baby book and more diapers.

"Trust me, it's always best to have too many diapers instead of not enough."

I laugh. "You would know with your twins."

Paris is the one that who ultimately surprises me. She got me a keepsake box, a picture frame, and a baby car kit.

"Wow! Thank you, Paris. They're very nice."

"I thought that the car kit would be very useful."

"Yes it will be. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Sookie gave me some outfits that ranged from newborn to a year. She also got me a breast pump.

"I wasn't sure if you were going to be breast feeding or not but if you decide to, you'll want that."

I look at the box. I haven't fully decided yet on whether or not I'm breastfeeding. There's a class I can attend on it coming up in couple weeks if I decide to so I do still have some time to make up my mind before the baby comes.

"I bought your mom one too at her shower we threw at work."

I nod.

"It took a little while to get used to it but now I've been very happy that I have it." My mom informs me. "It comes in handy so I don't have to get up to feed Ayden every night. Luke can feed him."

"Thank you, Sookie. You've went extremely overboard buying everything you did but I do appreciate it."

"Oh you're welcome, hun."

I had previously mentioned to my grandmas that if they chose to give any present they should not be monetary. We already have way too much money.

I open the present from my grandma and it's a beautiful christening gown. "That's gorgeous, grandma. Thank you."

"That was the christening gown that your mom wore when she was baptized."

"Really? It's beautiful. Thank you, grandma."

"You're welcome, Rory."

Francine gave me baby monitors and a car seat.

"Thanks grandma. All of these will come in handy."

"What's nice about those monitors is that they are a 3 pack. You can keep one in the baby's room, one in your room, and then there's an extra."

"That's going to be great. Thank you."

"You're welcome dear."

After all the presents are open, we break out the cake. It's super yummy chocolate cake. The baby loves chocolate. When I come back into the living room, Maya is right behind me.

"Hey Maya." We sit down on the couch. "I just wanted to apologize for Logan earlier and his attitude."

"Don't worry about it." She assures me.

"But I do." I tell her. "He should know better than to behave that way."

"It's OK, Rory. I'm not surprised by his reaction."

"Yeah, I wish I could say that I was surprised."

Honor comes back from the kitchen. She takes a seat on the other side of me. She takes a bite of her cake. "This is excellent. Who made it?"

"Sookie did."

"It's amazing."

"I know. She does an excellent job at baking and cooking."

"Oh!" Honor reaches for her purse and grabs an envelope from inside it. "Forgot to give you this."

I look at it. I remember the last time I got an envelope like this. Two words appeared on several of the pages. "I don't have to take a guess on who this is from, do I?"

"No." She tells me. "My mom was actually going to come but she's been tired because of the treatments."

"It's OK, Honor. You don't have to make up excuses."

"No, she's serious, Rory." Maya tells me. "It's utterly amazing. My sister is a different person now. She's mellowed out. I think the fact that she got cancer made her gain a little perspective. That no matter how much money you have, you're not immune to getting cancer."

I'm trying to wrap my head around this. Shira? Mellow? Those words sound like an oxymoron when they're put together.

"Seriously?" I raise a curious eyebrow.

"I promise, Rory. I mean she does actually sound positive at the fact that she's going to be a grandma."

"That gives you some hope too, doesn't it?" I tell Honor and then I catch myself.

Maya's eyes light up. "Excuse me. What aren't you telling me?"

"Rory…" Honor groans.

"Sorry, sorry."

"Yeah, I'm 6 weeks along." Honor admits.

"That's fabulous, Honor. Congratulations." Maya hugs her.

"Thanks. Don't tell anyone yet." Honor looks at me and then at the envelope. "Are you going to open it?"

"Yeah." I nod. I open it and it is trust paperwork. I haven't looked at the details yet; mainly because there's a letter that accompanies it. A handwritten letter from Shira.

"Rory…" My mom nudges me on the shoulder. "Hun?"

I look up. "Yeah?"

"You OK?"

"Yeah, fine." I turn to Honor. "Do you have any clue what this says?"

She shakes her head. "Nope, none."

I set my cake down. "Excuse me, I'll be right back."

"Rory, where are you going?" My grandma asks.

"In my room, grandma. I need someplace quiet. I'll be back in a few minutes." I get up and head into my bedroom.

I close the door and take a seat on my bed. I take the paperwork back out of the envelope. I pull the letter away. It's 2 ½ pages long. That's shocking. I start to read:

_Dear Rory,_

_I am sorry that I was unable to attend your baby shower. Going through the radiation treatments has been making me very tired. I'm sure you probably don't believe that. I can understand what would make you think that._

_I would like to thank you for being at the hospital during my surgery. I would also like to thank you for whatever you might have said that encouraged Logan to be there as well. It made me feel good to know that he had been there. It's been difficult not being able to talk to him._

I pause for a moment when I read that last line. Does she really feel that way?

_I realize that Logan is still very upset with his father and with me but I hope in the near future that we will be able to work things out. I don't want to go through the rest of my life without knowing my granddaughter. Speaking of, congratulations. Both Mitchum and Honor have told me that you're expecting a girl. I am happy for you two._

_I am sure this is a very surprising letter for you to read. I personally would like to tell you that everything I've told you is the truth. Being diagnosed with breast cancer has made me realize what is really important in life. You've made my son really happy, Rory. I tried to deny it while you were dating with the illusion that I knew which girl he was meant to be with; I was wrong._

Oh I'm definitely keeping this letter, I vow to myself.

_All that matters to me right now is that you and Logan are happy. I have no doubt that you will be great parents. Mitchum and I both look forward to the day when we will be able to meet our granddaughter._

_Enclosed you will find the paperwork for the trust we have done for your baby. You will notice that only you and Logan are listed as the trustees. We are not listed anywhere on the paperwork._

I decide to test it myself. Now is the 1st time I've gotten to actually review it. It appears it's for 25 million dollars. I review it several times. Yes, she is right. Neither her name nor Mitchum's are mentioned anywhere on the paperwork. Words can't express how surprised I am by this letter. Maybe Honor and Maya are right; maybe Shira has changed.

_We aren't expecting any kind of gratitude from you for the trust however we would like to hear from you when the baby is born. We would really appreciate that. I really do hope that Logan will forgive us sometime in the near future so that way we can be a family again. __**All**__ of us can be a family. Please give our love to Logan._

_Shira_

Wow! Unbelievable. I actually started to tear up at it. There's a knock at the door and I tell them to come in.

"Hun." My mom comes in. "You OK?"

I nod. "Yeah, fine. It was just a very unexpected letter."

"From who?"

"From Shira."

"What did it say?"

"Basically that she was sorry for the past and she and Mitchum want to meet the baby when she's born. Oh, and she said congratulations."

"Wow!" Mom exclaims.

"Pretty much my same thought." I put all of the papers back in the envelope. "Come on, let's go."

We head back out and I finish eating my cake. I really don't mention to anyone what the paperwork said even though my grandma really wants to know. My mom reminds her it's none of her business and that it's my choice as to whether or not I want to disclose what I got.

Most of the guests are gone by the time Logan gets back at five-thirty. It's pretty funny to watch his reaction as soon as he walks in.

"I told you I was going to need more than one suitcase."

"Yeah, apparently I was wrong." He leans down and gives me a kiss.

"Wow! The second time today that a Huntzberger has admitted they were wrong to me."

Logan sits next to me and looks at his sister. "So what were you wrong about?"

"Nope, not me." Honor says.

I pull the paperwork out and hand it to him. He flips it open and carefully reads. The thing that tends to annoy me about my husband is when he's reading something, he tends to keep his expression…bland. He makes it hard to know what he's thinking. He finishes reading and sits in silence.

"Well?" I ask.

"What?"

"That's it? That's the only reaction you're going to give to your mother's letter?"

"What do you want me to say?"

"Something. Anything."

"I don't know what to think, Rory. I'm still trying to determine whether or not it's capable of my mom to have a heart."

Honor groans. "Come on, Logan. Of course she has a heart. Granted it took her getting cancer to discover she did but she did."

"She's made changes, Logan." Maya informs him.

"Like what?" He asks, still being skeptical.

"Like she's quit smoking." Maya reveals.

"And she's quit drinking." Honor adds.

"Are you being serious?"

"Yes." They say in unison.

"The first one I guess I can see but there's no way that the woman has quit drinking. Sorry, I don't see that happening."

"There's a lot of things that you don't see, Logan. You're choosing not to see them." Honor tells him bluntly. "That doesn't mean that they aren't happening."

"What does that mean?" Logan scowls.

"It means that she offered up a full apology to Rory. She told her that she was wrong. She told her that she knows that Rory has made you really happy. Come on, Logan. You know that's her writing."

He nods. "Yeah, I know it is."

"Then remember that in the midst of tragedy comes an opportunity."

"What opportunity?"

"The one where you can rebuild your fractured relationship." Maya tells him.

He looks over at me. "What do you think?"

"I think I should go get you some cake." I get up from the couch. "Excuse me."

Unfortunately, Logan follows me into the kitchen. My mom, Gigi, Francine, and my grandma are all there having cake. Well, mom and Gigi are. Grandma and Francine are having coffee.

"Rory, that wasn't an answer." He reminds me.

"What do you want me to say, Logan? Yes, I'd like to believe she means it. I know you have every reason to be skeptical but she hand wrote the letter, Logan. When has your mother ever apologized to me?"

"Wow! She apologized to you?" My grandma says. "That's unexpected."

"Yes, it was very unexpected." I agree with her. "However, that doesn't mean that I didn't think it was possible. I'd really like to believe she means it." I hand him the piece of chocolate cake that I've put on a paper plate for him. "You're going to believe what you want though. I'm going back in the living room though." I look at Gigi. "Hey Gigi do you want to come with me?"

"Yeah." She gets up and follows me in. Logan is trailing behind us.

"Hi Gigi." Honor says to her. "Did you have fun at the shower?"

"Yeah, it was lots of fun."

"By the way, Logan, Gigi gave the baby a pink teddy bear." I point it out to him.

"Really?" He takes a bite of his cake. "That's very nice of you, Gigi. Thank you. I'm sure the baby is going to love it."

"OK, so guys…" I look at Colin and Finn. "How did today go?"

"They were fine." Finn says.

"They were civil." Colin adds.

"Wow! You're so lucky, Huntzberger. You may just get another chance at having another kid." I tell him.

"Rory… where do babies come from?"

Everyone is laughing and staring at me with how I'm going to answer.

"Umm…sweetie. I think that would be a question you'll want to ask daddy." OK so I chicken out. I don't care.

"Why?"

"Yeah, Rory why?" Finn asks.

"Because he's already told me he can't wait for you to ask him that." My dad is really going to kill me for this. "Make sure you ask him as soon as you get home, OK?"

"OK." She heads back into the kitchen as soon as she hears Francine call her.

"Chicken." Logan teases with a smile.

"Damn straight." I tell him. "And since you called me a chicken, when our daughter asks that question, I'll tell her to go ask you."

Logan's smile has now disappeared.

* * *

**Isn't Gigi adorable asking that? OK A LOT of end notes here. To anyone who's a mom: my experience with babies is very limited even though my mom is a babysitter and has been for over 35 years. I have 2 nieces however first hand experience is something I don't have. I'm relying a lot on the internet and my sister for information. Two, please forgive me if there's lot of errors here. I was proofreading this while watching Gossip Girl tonight. The show took a lot of my attention. There were so many things wrong with that episode tonight. If any of you watch it, I'm a huge Chuck and Blair fan and tonight was just shocking. Three, I'm sure that Shira's letter does not seem believable. We're trying to believe she's changing though because the cancer and she actually cares. I also thought that the conversation sounded better with Honor and Maya instead of Rory. Especially since Rory told him she wasn't going to push him. OK, anyway, so the next chapter Rory will have the baby. Then there will be an epilogue. I had a few days of writer's block so I started to write the sequel. I haven't gotten far though. Anybody have an idea on a name for the sequel? I'm thinking something different than Let's Jump 2. OK, I'm done now. Go review, OK? **


	35. Labor Pains

**OK I actually didn't have the intention of getting done with this chapter today but I'm glad I did. Here's the final official chapter of the story. There will be an epilogue. I'm going to try to get it out soon but I've started writing Gossip Girl Fan Fiction again and so I'm trying to balance writing 2 stories. I will be doing both but timewise you'll just have to impatient. To anyone who has had a baby, if my facts are off, forgive me. My experience in this area is limited and I did have to get my sister's help on some of it. She's had two girls. I hope you like it and the name is going to be revealed in the epilogue. Please review! I love reading them. Speaking of Addicted to FICS, I couldn't reply to yours because you have private messages turned off. I had to reply to everyone's via PM because of the link error that comes up when I try to submit from email. Anyway, please review!**

* * *

**June 18****th****, 10 days before Rory's due date**

**3:18am**

"Logan." I nudge him. "Logan."

"What?" He mumbles in his sleep.

"Wake up. We need to go to the hospital."

He bolts awake. "Are you sure?"

I'm already out of loud, getting dressed. "Yes, come on."

Three hours later, we're just getting back from the hospital. Turns out it was false labor. The doctor gave me a pamphlet on how I'll be able to tell the difference.

Logan's not acting mad but he's not happy about the fact that he now has to go to work sleep-deprived. He'll survive. It's about time he gets to feeling some of the discomfort I've had to put up with for the last 9 months.

He's in the shower right now and I slowly get in and start to wash my hair under my shower head.

"Are you going to be ready to go in half an hour?" He asks.

"Probably. Why?"

"Because we're riding together." He tells me.

"I'm very capable of getting myself to work, Logan." I tell him as I run conditioner through my hair and rinse it out.

"Just humor me, Ace."

I finish washing the body wash off of me. "Fine, whatever." I get out and dry myself off. OK, so maybe I'm getting a little pissed off. "I'm going to go eat breakfast." I grab my robe and put it on and head for the kitchen. I eat my Cheerios slowly. It's tasting rather bland. It takes me 15 out of the 30 minutes to eat it. I come back up and Logan's almost ready to go.

"Did you just finish eating?"

"Get off my back, Logan." I snap as I head into my closet to pick out something to wear.

"What is your problem?"

"Just go to work and I'll meet you there, OK?"

"Rory…"

"I'm fine, Logan. I will get to work on time. Please just go onto work."

He sighs. "Fine."

It's not his fault. I shouldn't be taking out my frustration on him. I hear about all these women who have Braxton-Hicks contractions thinking that they're the real thing and I was thinking to myself, how can you not tell the difference? I was sure I'd be able to tell the difference. Yeah, I was wrong. The doctor told me that when I was in labor, the contractions would be closer together. Mine are still really uneven. I had false labor.

By the time I get to work, it's quarter after 8. I don't normally start work until 8:30. A few minutes after I arrive, Jordan, my secretary, knocks on my door and comes in. She's reading what needs to be done today and I'm staring off into space.

"Rory…Rory."

I jolt back to reality. "Yeah?"

"Are you OK?" Jordan asks.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just had an early morning."

"False labor?" She asks.

"Yeah." I sigh. "I really thought I'd be able to tell the difference."

"Don't feel bad. I wasn't able to. Actually, I don't know any woman who went straight into labor without having false labor with their first baby. My second baby I was better able to tell but not with Kayla." Jordan has a boy and a girl. Kayla's 3 and Devin is 20 months.

"Thanks." I smile. "That makes me feel better to know it's not just me."

"Oh, of course it's not just you. "

"Thanks."

"Do you need anything right now?"

"No, I'm fine. Thanks, Jordan."

"Sure. Just let me know if you need something."

"Will do. Thanks."

Jordan leaves and I get onto my computer to proof some of the articles. The next issue is due out on Friday and it's getting to be crunch time. At nine-thirty, an instant message comes up from Logan. I haven't gotten a chance to talk to him since I got to work.

**Logan Huntzberger- How are you feeling?**

Just as I told Logan before we got married, I did stick with my maiden name professionally. Even though Mitchum has not ties to this company, I just think it's better to do things this way anyway. Logan understands that.

**Rory Gilmore-I'm fine; I'm tired**

**Logan Huntzberger-Well, yeah. I know; I am too.**

**Rory Gilmore-I'm sure you are but it's not the same. Your daughter won't stop kicking which makes it difficult to sleep. Besides, this morning was a disappointment.**

**Logan Huntzberger-Ace don't think of it like that. She'll come when she's ready. Are you going to meet me for lunch?**

**Rory Gilmore-I'm taking a nap during lunch.**

**Logan Huntzberger- Rory you need to eat something.**

**Rory Gilmore-I will before I take my nap.**

**Logan Huntzberger-Do you want to go home? You can always work from home.**

**Rory Gilmore-No, I'm fine. I'm already starting my maternity leave a whole week early. I'll be fine. I'm just going to rest my eyes for awhile.**

**Logan Huntzberger-Come up here and rest on your lunch.**

I keep reading that over and over.

**Rory Gilmore-Why? I'm fine down here, Logan. **

**Logan Huntzberger-Because you won't have to worry about disruptions. Besides my couch is more comfortable than yours when it comes to sleeping.**

I'm not sure I even want to know how he knows that.

**Rory Gilmore-Fine. I'll be up around noon.**

**Logan Huntzberger-I love you**

I smile. I really needed to hear that…I mean read that right now.

**Rory Gilmore-Love you too Logan. Need to finish proofing. See you soon.**

I sign off and return to proofing articles. I'm meeting with my assistant editor, Coral, in half an hour. She will be taking over for me while I'm on maternity leave. She's slightly older than me and she was editor of Columbia's newspaper for 3 years. She's been an amazing help especially since I've had to make frequent trips to the doctor for my appointments.

My cell phone starts ringing then. I glance at the caller ID. It's my dad.

"Hey dad."

"Hey kiddo. How are you feeling?"

"Oh, I'm tired. It's been a long day and it's only 10:15."

"Did you make a trip to the hospital?"

"Yeah I did but it was a false alarm." I sigh.

"So where are you at right now?"

"In my office at work."

"Really? You didn't stay at home?"

"I can't right now, dad. There's a new issue coming out and the deadline is in a couple days. Besides Logan and I talked on the way home from the hospital and we decided that, per the doctor's recommendation, that I would start my maternity leave a whole week early. Are you and Gigi coming out when the baby's born?"

"We wouldn't miss it." My dad laughs.

"That's great. Mom's unsure if she's going to make it." I admit.

"Really?" He sounds surprised.

"Well, it would be the 1st trip flying with Ayden. He's only 4 months old so she's not sure whether or not to make the trip. I fully understand." I tell him. "We both have webcams so she'll be able to see her granddaughter even if she's not here in person."

I finish talking to my dad a few minutes later but not before he brings up about the conversation he had with Gigi about the whole baby thing. He knows that I told her to ask him about it. I told him I wasn't going to deprive him of the opportunity to explain. I have to worry about this topic 6 or 7 years (hopefully she'll wait that long) from now. When I asked him what he told her, he said he told her there was a magic fairy and she used her wand and touched a lady's tummy, she got to have a baby. I died laughing. I'll give him points for creativity. I didn't think he'd really talk to her about sex but I did think he'd answer the question differently.

My meeting with Coral goes good. I really have no doubt that she'll do a great job. I head into my private bathroom before I head up to Logan's office. I never requested it but it will be good when it comes time to do nursing. From what I read, expressing milk can be very time consuming. While I know that formula is probably quicker, it's also more costly. My eyes nearly bugged out of my head when I saw the prices. Seriously? $20 for a can of formula? It's ridiculous. Besides, ever since I got that breast pump from Sookie, it got me to thinking. My mom has told me about how great the bond is between her and Ayden. She's been raving about nursing so I decided overall, it may be the best option for me. Of course, that doesn't mean that Logan is going to be exempt from feeding duties. After all, that is what the breast pump is for.

I get to Logan's office shortly after quarter to 12. I know how it's really unprofessional to nap at work but I would never do it during any time I'm getting paid for. I would think Scott would be understanding. Then again, Logan would remind me. Scott isn't my boss; he is.

I go in and see Logan's currently on the phone.

"No, not yet…you know I would have called you had she went into labor."

I look at him curiously and he grins at me.

"I'm not mad…no I'm not…I'm just tired. I need to go though. Rory's here. Yeah, I'll talk to you later. Yeah, I love you too. I'll see you soon. Bye."

"You know, until you said 'I love you too' I thought you were talking to Finn."

"I was." He tells me.

"What?"

He laughs. "I'm just kidding. It was Honor."

I laugh. He comes around his desk and gives me a kiss. "How are you doing?

"I'm doing fine."

"Are you hungry?" He asks and I shake my head.

"No, I went down to the café at 11 and grabbed some food."

Logan gives me a skeptical look.

"Logan, your daughter is fine. She and I have already eaten. I told you I was going to eat before I came up here."

"OK. As long as you're sure."

"I am." I confirm as I take a seat on his couch. I'm so glad that I decided to wear pants today. It's a rarity that I do but I really didn't want to deal with trying to get pantyhose on. "By the way, years from now, when you give that birds and bees talk to our daughter, try to be more creative than a fairy used her wand to make someone pregnant."

He stares at me curiously. "What?"

"Yeah, that's what my dad told Gigi when she asked."

"You're kidding, right?"

"Come on Logan. Would I make that up?"

He dies laughing. "That's too funny."

"Yeah, don't get any ideas about using that." I lay down.

"I wouldn't have even thought of that honestly."

I start to close my eyes. It's taking strength to keep them open.

"I'm going to go get some food from downstairs. Do you want me to bring you anything?"

"I'm fine." I mumble as I drift off to sleep.

The next thing I know I hear tapping on a keyboard. It takes me a second to remember that I'm at work and in Logan's office on his couch.

"Hey Ace. Sleep OK?"

"What time is it Logan?"

"Uhh…just before 2."

My eyes widen. "2! Damn it Logan! Why didn't you wake me up? I was only going to sleep during my lunch. God, this is going to look so bad to my people." I fly up from the couch…well, as quick as I can.

"Rory, would you relax? I checked with Jordan. You didn't have anything on your schedule until 2:30 anyway. You're fine."

"This will look so bad to them, Logan." I argue.

"No it won't." He insists. "No one knows you were taking a nap except for me. I told Jordan that we were reviewing ideas for the next issue. I asked her the next time you had something on your schedule and she said it was 2:30."

"I need to get downstairs." I head for the door. "Issue's coming out on Friday and I need to finish proofing."

"Rory, I've been doing that for you."

"What?"

"Yeah, that's what I've been doing."

"As much as I appreciate you doing that, Logan, it's unnecessary."

"I'm just trying to help you out."

"I know. Thank you but I'm OK." I go over to his desk and give him a kiss. "I'll see you later." I give him another kiss.

"Bye Ace. I love you."

"Love you too. Bye."

**2 days later**

**Friday, June 20****th**

**9am**

Everyone on my team is assembling in the conference room in our area. This is going to be the last meeting I give before I go on maternity leave. It's more or less to just go over the way things will be while I'm away. The contractions have been coming and going the last couple days. They are still pretty uneven. I know pretty much for a fact that I'm going to be having her before my due date. She's being very insistent on coming early.

"Hey everyone." I greet them warmly as I shut the door. "This won't be a long meeting. We need to get the issue…" I pause for a second because I can feel a contraction start to come on. "out today." I finish my sentence after about 15 seconds.

"Rory?" I hear one of my writers, Bella, call to me.

"Yeah?" I ask.

"Are you OK?"

"Yeah, fine."

"Are you sure you're not going into labor?" One of the guys, Kevin, asks.

I shake my head. "No, I don't think so. Not yet anyway."

"Maybe we should call Logan." Coral says.

"No don't." I think I startle her with my response. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to come out like that. It's just…I think it's still too premature. The contractions are still really uneven. If they get closer together, I'll get him then." I tell all of them. "Let's keep going though. I want to thank you for all of your hard work to get this issue out. It's well appreciated. As you all probably know, I will be starting my maternity leave on Monday and I'll be gone for 8 weeks. Coral is going to be editing in my place. Logan, of course, will be here for the majority of the time if you would need him. He's going to be off the 1st two weeks but he'll be here after that." I turn to Coral. "By the way, I don't know if he plans on doing this or not but if he starts popping up down here to check on things, don't take it personally." I tell her as another contraction starts to hit me.

"I won't." She tells me and then notices my expression. "Rory, you OK?"

I nod.

"OK, I really think we should get Logan." She says and I'm quick to argue.

"No seriously not yet. They're not even yet. I'm OK. Really." Me reassuring them is apparently doing nothing for them. "I will however let Coral finish the meeting for me."

Coral continues and talks about the next issue and a few minutes later, I get a surprise.

"We just wanted to tell you congratulations and good luck." Coral says as Jordan comes in wheeling a cake and ice cream.

"Oh, that's really sweet of you guys. Thank you."

Everyone grabs some cake and ice cream. It's very good chocolate cake. I make it through most of the cake and all of my ice cream when it starts again. I look at the clock: 9:21. They've evened out. They're every 7 minutes. Everyone's still watching me.

"Rory, let me get Logan." Jordan says.

"No, no it's OK." I tell them as I stand up. "I'm going to call the doctor then I'll get Logan. Everyone, 9:30 is the magic time to go back to work. Thanks for the cake and ice cream. I'll have Logan keep you posted."

I get lots of well wishes from everyone as I waddle back to my office. I reach my cell phone and call Dr. Nathan. She's my OB-GYN. After talking to her, she OK'd me to head to the hospital. Now I have to go get Logan. I ask Nicole where he's at and she tells me in a meeting with Scott and Mark. I find the conference room and knock.

"Come in." I hear Scott call.

I poke my head in first then head in. "Hi." I tell them.

"Hi Rory." Scott tells me.

"Hey Rory." Mark says.

"Sorry to interrupt but Logan, we need to go."

"Rory, it's false labor." Logan tells me without turning around.

"No it's not, Logan. It's real this time. I just spent the last half hour freaking out my staff downstairs. I've called the doctor. She told me to go to the hospital. Now get your ass up and drive me there or I'll drive myself there."

"Logan, drive her to the hospital." Scott interjects. "My wife's had 3 kids so I have an idea on this."

"How far apart are your contractions?" Logan asks as he finally turns around.

"Seven minutes now get your ass moving." I demand.

"Logan, both of our wives have had babies. Get her to the hospital." Mark tells him.

Logan finally gets up and follows me out of the room. As soon as he does and I shut the door, I smack his head.

"Hey! What the hell is that for?"

"You're an idiot." I inform him as I start down the hallway.

"Rory…"

"Just don't Logan." I tell him as I stop because I'm having another one. I'm trying to remember my breathing. "I can tell that it's real…this time. I'm in a lot of pain."

"Come on, it can't be that bad."

God, he's working my last nerve. I look around to make sure no one's around and no one is. It's a good thing there's no cameras in the hallway because they would have gotten to see an assault. I grab him…down there and I give him a nice hard tug.

"Ow!" He yelps. "Would you stop it?"

I let him go. "So how did that feel?"

"It hurt like hell."

"Yeah, I'm sure it did. Now imagine that happening every 7 minutes and maybe you'll get the type of pain I'm in."

"OK point taken."

By the time we get to the Palo Alto Hospital, it's 10:30. The contraction are at 6 ½ minutes now. Logan's called my parents and also Honor. He's having them spread the word from there. The doctor's been in once to check on me. She said that I'm at 4 centimeters. This is going to be a long day.

Logan's sitting beside me holding my hand trying to keep me calm. It's not working.

"You're going to be lucky if we ever have sex again." I warn him.

"Come on, Ace. I know you're not serious about that."

"Would you like to feel that pain again?" I ask.

"Hell no."

"Then don't voice your opinion. Right now it's irrelevant." I inform him.

The nurse comes in and gives me my epidural which I'm more than eager to take. It doesn't take long for it to kick in. I'm feeling pretty damn good now.

Logan's seeing me relax which prompts him to ask. "Are you feeling better?"

"How women are able to do this drug-free, I have no clue."

He grins. "How you're doing this at all, is beyond me."

I smirk. "Are we trying to suck up?"

"A little." He admits with a smile. "Is it working?"

"A little." I tell him. The phone then rings. "Hello?"

"Hi hun."

My eyes light up. "Mom!" I breathe a sigh of relief. "God, how the hell did you do this 2 times?"

"Easy. I spaced 23 years in between them." She jokes.

"It would be so much better if you were here, mom." I start crying. I know logistically why she can't be but it's still sad, you know?

"Aww, hun you know I would if I could. It's just tough right now with your brother. We'll be out soon though. Actually that's why I'm calling. I know it's nowhere near the same but Luke will be out."

"Really?" I'm a little stunned by that.

"Yeah, he is going to be on Logan's father's plane along with everyone else."

My eyes grow wide at the admission. "I'm sorry; he's going to be on whose plane?"

"Logan's dad." She repeats. It gets quiet for a few seconds and she then says. "I take it you didn't know about that."

"No, I didn't." I tell her. "I'm almost positive there's someone else who's unaware of this."

"Are you going to tell him?"

"I'm more worried about giving birth right now."

"Understood. So how are you feeling?" She asks.

"I'm better now that I'm in the hospital." I tell her as I glance over at my husband.

"I'm sorry, OK?" Logan exclaims. "I should have listened to you sooner."

"Thank you. Nice of you to admit that. Now if you could just remember that on a regular basis, that would be great."

He smirks. "Now that you're in labor, you just know it all, don't you?"

"Yes, I do."

I hang up with my mom a few minutes later. I slowly breathe in and out. I glance over at the machine next to me. It's keeping track of my heartbeat and the baby's too. It seems like the baby's heartbeat is really fast but the nurse assures me it's normal.

OK we're now 8 hours into this labor and still no baby. I'm up to 7 centimeters now. The doctor's encouraging words are to hang in there. I'm doing great but it could still be a little while. My question is, how long is a little while? That's way too vague for me.

"Are you doing OK?" Logan asks as he hands me a cup of ice chips.

"About as fine as I can be." I mumble as I eat a few of them.

I hear a knock on the door and tell them to come in. I see Honor open the door and I grin.

"Hey Rory!" She comes over to me and gives me a hug.

"Hey, Honor. How are you?" I smile.

"I'm fine. The question is how are you?"

"I'm doing OK. I just want this to be over already. It's been almost 9 hours."

"Ace, she'll come when she's ready." Logan tells me and I throw him a dirty look.

"Hey! What did I tell you about offering your opinion?"

"Apparently, your epidural is starting to wear off."

"Logan, shut up before I give you another taste of what this pain feels like."

"OK, OK, fine."

"What's going on?"

"Nothing." I tell her. "Your brother has already gotten an idea of just how much these contractions hurt. He was taking his dear sweet time getting me here."

"How many times do you want me to apologize?" He asks.

"Anyway, he didn't think they hurt that bad. He then got to suffer an equal kind of hurt."

Honor is quietly laughing.

"Honor!" Logan says.

"I'm sorry; you deserved that though." Honor reveals.

I then get to quickly visit with Luke and my dad, grandma and grandpa, and Finn, Colin and Steph.

"You look beautiful darling." Finn says.

"You're such a liar, Finn but thank you nonetheless."

"How are you doing, Rory?" Steph asks.

"I'm so tired. She just needs to come out already."

Logan starts to open his mouth but I decide to cover it.

"What's that all about?" Colin asks.

"Logan's not going to be offering opinions right now and if he does he gets to feel what childbirth feels like again."

"Again?" Finn raises an eyebrow.

"Yeah, he's already had it happen once."

"I'd keep your mouth shut, Logan. It keeps like a wise idea." Steph informs him.

"Thank you Steph."

It's now hour 14 and I'm finally dilated all 10 centimeters. I'm being wheeled off to the delivery room and Logan is changing into scrubs.

"You're doing great, Rory." My doctor tells me. "It won't be much longer and you're going to be a mommy."

I sigh as I slowly breathe in and out. Logan's back by me now. He's in blue scrubs.

"Ready to start pushing?" My doctor asks and my only thought is god yes. I slowly nod.

"Ok, go." Logan's holding my hand while I'm pushing and the doctor is slowly counting to 10. When she gets done, I sigh as I lean back and rest for a second. A second is about all I get because we start again. After another 10 seconds I let out another huge breath.

This goes on for another 15 minutes before the doctor can finally see her head. "You're almost done, Rory. I can see her. Now I really need you give me a really big push, OK?"

I nod. She starts counting again and I'm pushing as hard as I can until I start screaming. Logan is keeping hold of my hand and trying to encourage me.

"OK Rory, her head's out so I need one last push. One last big push and you're officially a mommy."

I nod and push as hard as I can. At about 6 seconds I see the doctor hold her up. Then I hear her cry. I start crying then too. Logan's crying too. I smile at him and he gives me a kiss.

"You did so awesome, Rory." He whisper in my ear. "I love you."

"Congratulations," Dr. Nathan tells us. "It's a girl." She then looks at Logan. "Logan, did you want to cut the cord?"

Logan quickly accepts this offer as I catch my breath. Wow! She's here. She's finally here.

A moment later, I see that Dr. Nathan has put a pink cap on her head and swaddled in a pink blanket. She is bringing her over to me. I eagerly take her in my arms and stare at her. She's so gorgeous. She's got the cutest little nose and the most perfect little lips. I can't believe how tiny she is. With the way she kicked, I figured she would be huge.

Logan sits back down next to me.

"How do you feel?" He looks at me then at her.

"I'm doing good." I smile at him. "How are you doing, dad?"

He's beaming at that comment. "Ace, I honestly couldn't be happier." He leans in and kisses me.

* * *

**Yea, happy ending. The epilogue is going to be everyone in the room holding the baby and a webcam visit from Lorelai. I think it's fine to be able to do that in a hospital. I don't know. I'm going to write it that way though. Anyway, review please! I love them! I'll get the epilogue out within the next couple weeks mainly because I told the Gossip Girl fans I'd have that chapter out next week. I may still get both of them done within in a week but figure a couple weeks, OK? I just want to let you all know that you've been the most awesome reviewers ever. I was really scared to release this story at all for fear it wasn't any good. I appreciate everyone's opinions they gave me. One last chance to offer a title to anyone who hasn't offered one for the sequel. I have an idea and it is one of the reviewer's suggestions but I want to see if anyone else has opinions on what it should be. If you do let me know. **


	36. Lorelai Madalyn Huntzberger

**Wow! I can't believe this story is done. It's been almost a year since I started it. You know I did have this done last night however I kept getting this connection lost error. OK so one of the polls ended with Lorelai being the first name of the baby. The other poll you'll see throughout this chapter. I want to thank all of you for reading this story and loving it as much as I loved writing it. It was a lot of fun. I promise I'll try to make the sequel just as good as the first. Maybe a little more drama at times. Having a baby can't be easy you know :D Anyway, I'd love to know what you thought of the epilogue too so please review!**

* * *

**June 21****st**

**2:12 am**

It's been a little over an hour since Rory had the baby. Rory's been drifting in and out of sleep. I can't help but stare in awe at my daughter in my arms. She's gorgeous, just like her mother. She has the tiniest fingers and toes and the cutest little nose. She has a pink cap on but I did see her hair and it's blonde.

"You're an amazing woman, you know that?" I whisper.

"Logan, lots of women give birth every single day." Rory looks at me sleepy-eyed.

"I'm not married to lots of women. I'm married to you." I remind her. "Ahh…you just did amazing, Ace. I'm so proud of you."

She smiles as she struggles to keep her eyes open. "Really? Even after I assaulted you?"

I quietly laugh as I stare down at my daughter. "I can't even begin to imagine the pain you went through to have her. I'm sure it's a hell of a lot more than the temporary pain I went through."

She slowly nods. "Yes, it was."

"Are you in any pain right now?"

She shakes her head. "I'm OK." Then she falls asleep.

I put the baby back in her incubator and call for the nurse to take her back to the nursery. I then lay down on the nearby couch and crash too. I wake up at 6:30 and notice that Rory's already awake. She's sitting up staring out the window. The sun is just starting to come up.

"Hey." I sit up. "How long have you been awake?"

"Just a couple minutes." She tells me.

"How are you feeling? Are you in any pain?" I ask as I come over and give her a kiss.

"Some." She admits.

"Well, why don't I go get the nurse? Maybe she'll give you some medicine." I suggest.

"No it's OK." She tells me as she hits a button by her bed. "That's what this is for."

A few moments later, the nurse comes in and greets us. She takes Rory's vitals and helps her into the bathroom. Rory comes back a few minutes later and the nurse gives her some pain medicine. The nurse says that the doctor will be in an hour to check on her and she herself will be back around 8 to have Rory try breastfeeding.

Rory nods to acknowledge what the nurse said. After the nurse leaves, she sighs. "I don't want you here while I'm trying to do this."

I frown. "Why?"

"I'm nervous enough as it is. It's just too much pressure when you're here. I know you don't think that way but it's true."

I'm not going to argue with her. "OK. If that's what you want."

"It is." She confirms. "At least for this time."

"OK."

"Why don't you take everyone out for breakfast? Then everyone can come back and see the baby?" She suggests.

"That's a good idea." I tell her.

"You know, we never did come to a conclusion about her name." She informs me.

"I thought it was going to be Lorelai." I remind her.

"Yeah, I know but her middle name was never decided on. So what do you think?"

"What about Madeline?"

She grins. "I like Madeline. Where did you get Madeline?"

"It's actually Honor's middle name." I reveal.

"She's going to really like that." She smiles. "How's it spelled?"

"The more traditional way: M-a-d-e-l-i-n-e."

"Why don't we go for a different spelling?"

"What are you thinking?"

"How about M-a-d-a-l-y-n?"

"I like it." I conclude.

"Lorelai Madalyn Huntzberger." She says.

"It has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?" I say and she nods.

"Now our daughter has some tie with the 2 most important women in our lives."

Rory grins. "I couldn't have said it better myself."

I give her a kiss then.

"I love you."

"I love you too, Ace."

* * *

I'm so tired. Childbirth, while being extremely rewarding, is also extremely exhausting! I can barely keep my eyes open and the nurse is going to be bringing in the baby to try nursing. Logan just left about 5 minutes ago. He's meeting everyone for breakfast. They'll be back here about 10. There's something that's bothering me though. I pick up my cell phone and call Honor.

"Hello?"

"Hey Honor."

"Rory! Hey! Congratulations!" She squeals.

"Thanks. Hey, I was curious about something." I tell her.

"Sure. What's that?"

"Did your parents end up coming out?"

"Umm…no." She tells me. "They're still in Connecticut."

"Oh."

"They weren't sure you wanted them out here or not."

"Have you given them an update yet?"

"No, actually I was just about to. I had wanted to do that before Logan got here."

"Don't worry about it. I'll call them."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'll see you in a little while."

"Sounds good. Bye."

"Bye."

I hang up and call Mitchum and Shira at their home number. It takes about 4 rings before they pick up.

"Hello?"

"Hi Shira. It's Rory." I figure she would know it was me but still.

"Rory…hello. Are congratulations in order?"

"Yes, they are. It was just before 1 this morning when I had a baby girl."

"That's wonderful. Congratulations." She sounds like she means it.

"Thank you."

"What did you name her?"

"Lorelai Madalyn Huntzberger."

"Oh, that's nice. Madalyn. That's Honor's middle name."

"Yes, actually Logan did mention that when he suggested it."

"Oh, he did?"

"Yes. So I was wondering if you and Mitchum will be making it out here to see her."

"You want us to come?" She sounds shocked.

"Yes, I do. Your letter stated about wanting to meet her. Are you going to come?"

"Yes, of course we will. We'll take the first flight out."

"OK, good." I hear a knock and the nurse rolls my daughter's incubator in. "I need to go though. The nurse has brought the baby in and I'm going to feed her."

"Oh, OK. Well, I guess we'll see you later on today?"

"Yes, you will." I'm about to hang up when she stops me.

"Rory?"

"Yes?"

"Does Logan know that you're calling?"

"No, actually. He's taking everyone out for breakfast. Then everyone will come back here to see her. I need to go. Bye, Shira." She tells me bye and I hang up. I turn to the nurse and smile.

She smiles back as she lifts the baby up from the incubator. "How are you feeling?" She asks me.

I sit up a little straighter. "Pretty good."

"Are you ready to try nursing?" She asks as she hands me the baby. I stare at her. Her eyes are barely open. I'm unsure why exactly I'm intimidated by this 6lb, 10oz little girl but I am. Regardless, I tell the nurse I'm ready to try.

It's not easy. In fact, it's damn near frustrating. After several failed attempts, I start to break down. The nurse pats my arm gently.

"Don't worry, honey." She gives me a brave smile. "It may take some time but you'll get the hang of it and so will she."

I just quietly nod and dry my eyes.

"Just try and relax. The more you appear it, the more relaxed she'll be too."

I nod and take a slow breath in and out. We try again and after about 45 minutes, I finally was able to get her to nurse. There's no milk coming out yet but I learned the sooner she starts this, the sooner the milk will come.

I'm half awake when Logan gets back from breakfast. It's almost 10.

"Hey, are you ready to see everybody?" He come over and gives me a kiss.

I sit up again. "Yeah, sure."

"So how did it go?" He asks.

"It took a lot longer than I expected for her to get the hang of it."

"Are you OK?"

I nod. "Yeah, I'm fine. Go ahead and let everybody in. I'll buzz the nurse to bring the baby back in." She had taken her back to the nursery so I could rest my eyes for the last half hour before Logan got back.

This is going to be interesting because this is such a large group. I watching everyone waltz in. I smile at all of them and I get kisses from my dad, grandmas and grandpa.

"How are you feeling Rory?" Luke asks.

"Not too bad." I admit. "Kind of tired after 14 hours of labor."

"That's understandable." Maya says.

"Something for you to look forward to." I tell Honor.

"Oh, god." She moans and we laugh.

"There's nothing saying that yours is going to be that long." I add.

The nurse knocks and brings the baby and is surprised by how many people are in the room. She tells us there's a limit to how many are supposed to be in the room at a time. We ask her to make an exception this one time and she agrees but tells everyone that there is a window for visiting and when she comes back, it will be over. Everyone agrees.

I offer to let Gigi hold the baby first. I make her sit in the chair though. My dad is beside her to help her hold the baby.

"She's so pretty daddy." She says loudly. I can see the baby flinch at the loud decibel.

"Gigi, we have to talk quietly." My dad whispers. We all quietly laugh.

"Hi baby. I'm Gigi." She whispers.

"Gigi, do you remember what you are?" Logan asks.

"Yes. I'm an aunt." She states proudly. "I'm your aunt." She informs the baby.

We start laughing then.

"Rory?" She asks.

"Yes Gigi?"

"What's the baby's name?"

"Her name is Lorelai Madalyn."

I see Honor's eye light up. "Madalyn? Really?"

Logan grins. "It's not a coincidence." He informs her. "We figured you might like that."

"That's so sweet of you guys. Thank you."

"What? What's going on?" Grandma asks.

"Honor's middle name is Madeline." Maya tells my grandma.

"That's so lovely, Rory." Grandma says. I'm half wondering if she's being sarcastic. I'm sure she's feeling left out but maybe with the next kid. We'll have to see.

"Gigi? Can I hold her now?" My dad asks.

She nods and dad takes the baby from Gigi.

"So how did you like that?" Logan asks her.

"It was nice but she was getting heavy."

We laugh. Yeah, probably to a 7 year old, she would be heavy.

"Have you talked to your mom yet?" Dad asks.

"No, not yet." I look over at Logan. "Have you got the laptop? We can set it up with the video camera so she can see her."

"How about you Logan?" Grandma asks. "Have you let your parents know about the baby?"

He says no at the same time I say yes. We say it at the same time again.

"What do you mean yes?" He asks.

"I mean yes. I talked to your mother when you took everyone to breakfast." I inform him.

He's not looking too pleased by this really but then I tell him.

"Logan, her wish in her letter was to be notified when I had the baby. I honored her wish."

"Are they coming out here?" Grandpa asks.

"Sounds like it."

Now he's really not happy.

"I'm tired of this Logan." I inform him. "I'm tired in general. I just got done with 14 hours of labor and I'm surviving on just under 5 hours of sleep. You will survive. Now set up the video camera."

While he's setting up the laptop and the camera, Luke, my grandpa, grandma and Francine all hold the baby.

"So who does the baby look like?" Steph asks as she gets the baby from Francine.

"Well, she's got Logan's blonde hair." I tell them.

"And she's going to have Rory's eyes I'm sure and also probably her nose." Logan adds.

Colin and Finn aren't ready to hold the baby yet. I think it would have been Kodak moments had they decided to. Honor's holding her now.

Logan finally has the video camera set up and I call my mom on her cell phone to tell her to get on her computer. A minute later we connect in a chat.

"Hey hun!" She waves to me. "I got Sookie and Lane with me."

"Hey Rory!" Lane waves

"Hi Rory!" Sookie waves.

"Hey!" I wave. "Wow! It's nice both of you came to see the baby."

"Well of course." Sookie says.

"We wouldn't miss it." Lane adds.

"So hun, how do I look?" She grins as she starts messing with her hair.

"Honestly, Lorelai, I swear. You're going to see your granddaughter and all you can think is about your appearance." My grandma huffs.

"Excuse me mother. This is the first time that my granddaughter is going to meet me. I want to look my best."

"You look fine, Lorelai." Luke assures her.

"Just fine?" She pouts.

Grandma, grandpa, Luke and dad all say her name while I say mom as if we're groaning.

"I'm just kidding with you." She laughs. "So how are you doing, Logan?"

"Doing good. Kind of tired."

I glare at him though so he quickly adds.

"Probably not as tired as Rory though. She did really good through the 14 hours of labor."

"That's great. So where's the product of all that hard labor?"

Honor hands me the baby and I show her.

Her face, along with Sookie and Lane, is one of elation.

"Aww…" Sookie and Lane say in unison.

"She's so gorgeous." Mom says. "Congratulations you two."

"Thank you." Logan and I say in unison.

"So what's her name?" Sookie asks.

"Lorelai Madalyn Huntzberger."

"Oh, that's really pretty. Where did you get Madalyn?" Lane asks.

"It's Honor's middle name actually." I tell her. "So Lane…I have a question for you."

"Sure."

"How you would like to be a godmother?" I ask with a grin.

"Oh my god!" She squeals. "Are you serious?"

"Yes, I am."

"Of course. I would love to."

"Great, our daughter can learn all about rock and roll from you." I tell her.

"Well, to go with your coffee addiction." Lane laughs.

"Let's hope we break that tradition with this one." Logan says.

"Never." My mom and I say in unison and everyone laughs.

The baby starts to open her eyes for a moment.

"Hi angel. I'm your grandma Lorelai." She coos to her. "I can't wait to see you because I'm going to spoil you rotten."

Logan and I laugh.

"Me and grandpa Luke are going to have fun spoiling you."

I hold in a smirk. "Grandpa Luke?" I look at him.

"Oh, geez Lorelai I'm so not ready to be a grandpa. The kid can just call me Luke. Let's leave grandpa out of it OK?"

"Whatever grandpa." Mom says with a laugh and Logan and I laugh too.

The nurse knocks and comes back in then. "OK. You can come back and see her later. She needs to rest now."

They all sigh but I get hugs and kisses from everyone. A few minutes later, everyone has cleared out except for Honor who Logan had asked to stay.

"Listen, I just wanted to tell you. We want you and Josh to be godparents too."

Honor beams. "Thank you. I would love to." She gives us hugs and kisses and tells us she'll be back later.

I look back down at my mom on the screen. She's now the only one there. Lane and Sookie went to check on their kids.

"How are you feeling?"

"Exhausted doesn't begin to cover it." I admit.

"Was the end result worth it?"

I look over at Logan who grins at me. "I think so, yeah."

I get done talking to my mom a few minutes later and tell her that I will talk to her tonight.

Shortly after 3, there's a knock on my door.

"Come in." I call as I look over at Logan who had dozed off on the couch. He woke up when he heard the knock.

The door opens and I see Shira and Mitchum come through.

"Hello Rory." Mitchum greets me.

"Hello Mitchum, Shira." I tell them warmly as I look over at Logan whose expression is once again unreadable. Damn him! I hate when he does that!

"Hello, Rory." Shira actually smiles at me then turns to Logan. "Hello Logan."

"Hi mom, dad." Logan cracks a smile.

* * *

**And we end on a cliffhanger. The poll wanted them to make up in the sequel. It was very close. There were 2 votes difference between them. This is to get everyone to come back and read the sequel. I haven't fully decided on the title yet but I'm leaning towards the Landing. I can't remember which one of you suggested that to me but it went well since this was Lets Jump. Read the summary because I'm going to put it's the sequel to Lets Jump. It may still be awhile. I'm in school on Tuesdays and I have work and I'm writing another story too. I would figure maybe around a month. Thank you again for being my reviewers and loving this story!**


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